90% of Iranian Votes Are Cast for Rafsanjani

Parliamentary Speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani swept to victory in Iran’s two-man presidential race with more than 90% of the vote, according to returns released Saturday by the Iranian media.

Tehran Radio, monitored in Nicosia, said Rafsanjani--moving strongly to dominate political power in Iran after the June death of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the country’s supreme leader--had received 13.5 million of the 14.2 million votes counted after the polls closed Friday. Nationwide, eligible voters number 24 million.

Rafsanjani easily outpolled his only rival, Abbas Sheibani, a former agriculture minister. Sheibani, whose candidacy was seen as a token to the democratic process, conceded defeat Saturday and congratulated Rafsanjani, the radio said.

The official IRNA news agency also reported 97% approval for a ballot issue amending the constitution to give more power to the president. Essentially, the amendments transfer full executive powers to the new president, making the heads of ministries responsible to him through a Cabinet, and eliminating the position of prime minister.

Rafsanjani’s appointments to the Cabinet will indicate his governmental priorities and test his skills as a political coalition builder. The Cabinet of outgoing Prime Minister Hussein Moussavi struck a balance, with technocrats in financial and economic posts and Muslim clerics running the ministries dealing with security and justice.

In a series of recent interviews with Iranian newspapers and in remarks at prayers at Tehran University, Rafsanjani, 55, a three-term parliamentary Speaker and close ally of Khomeini, has declared that the war-devastated economy will be his top priority. His Cabinet selections are expected to reflect a willingness to improve relations with Western countries to balance Tehran’s new economic bonds with the Soviet Union.

They will also be watched to see whether he retains hard-liner Ali Akbar Mohtashemi as interior minister and finds a new post for another political rival, Moussavi, the prime minister whose position is being eliminated.

Neither Tehran Radio nor IRNA reported turnout figures, but voting has been heavy in past presidential elections in Iran, when the office carried less influence, and government propaganda organs made a major effort in this election to boost the numbers.