The victory of Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran's presidential election last week is only somewhat of a surprise. While relatively unknown, Mr. Ahmadinejad is a religious conservative who enjoyed the backing of powerful like-minded groups within the country and, equally important, the support of many of working-class Iranians. His election reflects the convergence of three currents in Iranian politics: nationalism, Islamic conservatism and the desire for clean government. The new president's challenge is very similar to that of his predecessor: reconciling the iron grip that religious groups have on the country with the popular demand for economic reform and an end to corruption. Mr. Ahmadinejad may find the presidency as frustrating as did his predecessor.
Iran has a two-step presidential election process. The first round is an open competition among qualified candidates. If no individual wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the two top vote-getters compete in a runoff. The contest is tightly controlled. Electoral gatekeepers disqualified virtually all the liberal candidates. On election day, there were numerous allegations of intimidation at the polls in which Revolutionary Guards and other religious groups forced voters to back conservative candidates, Mr. Ahmadinejad in particular.
Thus, the leading reform candidate, Mr. Mostafa Moin, former education and higher culture minister, never mustered enough votes to make the runoff. Instead, Mr. Ahmadinejad, the mayor of Tehran, riding a wave of conservative support, won 19.5 percent of ballots to face off against former President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who came in first, as expected, with 21 percent of the vote.