Ahmadinejad with clear lead in Iranian elections

Ahmadinejad with clear lead in Iranian elections Tehran - Incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is leading in Iranian elections, receiving almost 68 per cent of the votes counted so far, the news network Khabar reported.

With 47 per cent of the votes counted, mainly from the provinces, Ahmadinejad has a clear lead in the polls, receiving more than 10 million votes. His main challenger, Mir
-Hossein Moussavi, so far gained slightly over 30 per cent.

Slightly fewer than 33 million ballots were cast, the Interior Ministry said, meaning that Ahmadinejad would need about 6.5 million more votes to win the election.

However, Moussavi claimed in a press conference in Tehran that he was the clear winner of the votes and accused the government of having manipulated both the voting process and the counting.(dpa)