TEHRAN, June 23: Iran said on Thursday it had arrested 26 people, including at least one military figure, for suspected electoral violations ahead of an unpredictable presidential run-off vote.

The arrests appeared to lend some credence to reformist charges that an inconclusive first round vote on June 17 was marred by dirty tricks.

The reformists question a late surge in support which took hardline Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into Friday’s run-off.

Mr Ahmadinejad, 48, a former Revolutionary Guardsman who draws his support from Iran’s pious poor, faces former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in a vote that has split the Islamic state broadly along class lines.

Supporters of Mr Rafsanjani, 70, who is bidding to regain the post he held from 1989 to 1997, say a win for Ahmadinejad would roll back outgoing President Mohammad Khatami’s modest reforms and could lead Iran into international isolation.—AFP