Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian presidential contender

Wouldn't want this dude running my country... Not sure if I care who wins the election in Iran, though - the idea that the alternative candidate Rafsanjani is a "moderate" in any normal terms is a joke, and at least with this guy it would be harder for European appeasers to make out he's a good thing.

Opposition unites to keep out Iran's Islamic 'fascist'
Telegraph
23/06/2005

Reformists and moderate conservatives will swallow their differences and join forces tomorrow in a bid to defeat the presidential ambitions of an ultra-hardline candidate who they fear could turn Iran's political clock back to its revolutionary heyday.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a seasoned radical who was involved in planning the 1979 hostage seizure at the US embassy in Teheran, surprised many by coming second out of seven candidates in the first round of voting last week to secure a place in the run-off tomorrow.

Tacitly backed by Iran's all-powerful religious establishment, he made an unexpectedly strong showing on the basis of the rigidly anti-reformist agenda he promoted while serving as mayor of Teheran.

He shut down fast food restaurants and forced male and female council workers to use separate lifts. In his city hall fiefdom, he has required all male city employees to have beards and long sleeves.

His political rivals have put aside their differences to secure the defeat of the man they label an Islamic "fascist".

"I heard Ahmadinejad say on the radio that if he comes to power women will have a choice of three colours to wear publicly - black, grey or navy," said one 26-year-old secretary.

He has shown little enthusiasm for the ballot box process, famously remarking once that "we did not have a revolution in order to have democracy".

The bedrock of Mr Ahmadinejad's support is the Abadgaran, a faction of arch-conservatives whose notions of Islamic propriety go as far as objecting to curvaceous clothes dummies in shop windows.