From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
A recent poll of 1,123 people in Tehran found that the majority of respondents favor the probable reformist candidate in the May 2005 presidential election. The Iran University Students' Polling Center, which is affiliated with the University Jihad, conducted the poll, Farhang-i Ashti reported on 1 September. Former Prime Minister Mir Hussein Musavi topped the list with 29.4 percent of the respondents favoring him as their top choice for the election. Expediency Council Chairman Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani was a close second with 26.4 percent. Trailing far behind were Tehran Mayor Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad with 6.8 percent, Tehran parliamentarian Ahmad Tavakoli and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Hojatoleslam Hassan Rohani with 4.7 percent each, parliament speaker Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel with 4.3 percent, former Islamic Culture and Guidance Minister Ataollah Mohajerani with 3 percent, and former parliament speaker Hojatoleslam Ali-Akbar Nateq-Nuri with 2.6 percent. (This amounts to about 82 percent, and the report does not account for the remaining 18 percent.) Of the respondents, 56.6 percent said they do not follow news about the presidential election, and only 22.6 percent of the respondents were familiar with the prospective candidates. Of the respondents, 43.5 percent believe that the election will help resolve many of the country's problems. |