Violence mars Iran presidential candidate campaign

Iran Focus: Tehran, Jun. 20 – Members of Iran’s hard-line paramilitary Bassij forces in Tehran’s Mellat Park attacked yesterday evening campaigners for the front-runner in Friday’s presidential election run-off. Eye-witnesses reported seeing a group of posterboys, wearing campaign stickers for former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani over … Iran Focus

Tehran, Jun. 20 – Members of Iran’s hard-line paramilitary Bassij forces in Tehran’s Mellat Park attacked yesterday evening campaigners for the front-runner in Friday’s presidential election run-off.

Eye-witnesses reported seeing a group of posterboys, wearing campaign stickers for former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani over their clothes, being attacked by both the Bassij and plainclothes police as they were sticking up posters of the 70-year-old cleric in the park.

Security has been tight on the streets around the park after protests erupted there last week against the elections by women and youths who urged a national boycott of the polls.

Tehran residents also reported that since yesterday morning, they have been receiving SMS text messages on mobile phones against presidential contender Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, urging people to vote for Rafsanjani instead.

Official campaigning was supposed to have ended in the middle of last week.