Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran's presidential election early Saturday, garnering more than 62 percent of the votes, the Interior Ministry said. Al-Alam, a 24-hour news network in Iran, quoted the Interior Ministry as saying Ahmadinejad defeated former two-term President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. With 90 percent of the vote counted, the Interior Ministry gave Ahmadinejad 62.2 percent of the vote, while Rafsanjani had nearly 35.3 percent. The ministry posted a notice in its headquarters declaring Ahmadinejad the winner of Friday's runoff. An estimated 23 million votes were cast, or nearly 49 percent of Iran's 47 million eligible voters. In last week's first round of the presidential election, the turnout was close to 63 percent, the Associated Press reported.
