Clashes in Iran over disputed election

Supporters of the main election challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clashed with police and set up barricades of burning tires on Saturday as authorities claimed the hard-line president was re-elected in a landslide. The rival candidate said the vote was tainted by widespread fraud and his followers responded with the most serious unrest in the capital in a decade.

Ahmadinejad re-elected as Iranian president

By nightfall, cell phone service appeared to have been cut in the capital Tehran. And Ahmadinejad, in a nationally televised victory speech, accused the foreign media of coverage that harms the Iranian people. There was more rioting at night and fires continued to burn on the streets of Tehran.

Several hundred demonstrators - many wearing the trademark green colours of pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign - chanted "the government lied to the people" and gathered near the Interior Ministry as the final count from Friday's presidential election was announced.

It gave 62.6 percent of the vote to Ahmadinejad and 33.75 to Mousavi — a former prime minister who has become the hero of a youth-driven movement seeking greater liberties and a gentler face for Iran abroad.

Image: Supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi march through Valiasr Street during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. (Copyright AFP. Unauthorised reproduction is prohibited.)