TEHRAN, June 17: Iranians voted for a new president on Friday, with moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani seen just ahead in an unusually tight poll that Washington has dismissed as a sham.

Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari, speaking before polls closed, said the contest would go into a second round.

“We will certainly have a run-off because the competition is very serious and candidates are very close to each other,” the ISNA students news agency quoted him as saying.

To win outright a candidate must get at least 50 per cent of votes cast. Any run-off would be probably be held next Friday.

The Interior Ministry extended voting by four hours until 11 p.m. (1830 GMT) to give the 47 million eligible voters more time to cast ballots. Official results are due on Saturday.

Rafsanjani, 70, who wants better ties with the West, is a veteran politician who would be likely to pursue a pragmatic reform programme, liberalising the economy and conserving social freedoms without antagonising the powerful clerical elite.

He topped most opinion polls ahead of what could be Iran’s closest vote since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He may benefit from a split conservative vote.

His nearest rivals are reformist former education minister Mostafa Moin, 54, and conservative ex-police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, 43, with Tehran’s ex-mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emerging as a dark-horse hardline contender.—Reuters