1,000 Iranians in southern Iraq to take part in presidential elections

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: Around 1,000 Iranians working in the southern provinces in Iraq will take part in the Iranian presidential elections which started on Friday morning, the Iranian consul in Basra said. “Around 1,000 Iranian in Basra, Thi-Qar and Missan will take part in the presidential elections after opening three electoral polls in Basra,” Mohamed Nassier Baghban told IraqiNews.com news agency, noting that those are the employees of the Iranian consulate or Iranians married to Iraqis. “The polls were opened in the border al-Shalamega region and in the consulate as well as a mobile polling station to help the 90 Iranian prisoners in the Iraqi jails to take part in the elections,” he added. Friday’s poll has emerged as a close race between front-runners Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former premier Mir Hossein Mousavi, seeking a comeback after two decades in the political wilderness. Ahmadinejad, 52, is battling for a second four-year term, while the 67-year-old Mousavi is seeking to make a comeback, pledging better ties with the outside world. Election officials predict record turnout among the 46.2 million voters, half of whom were born after the 1979 Islamic revolution. SH (P) 1