The United States blasted Iran's electoral process on Thursday as a presidential campaign ended with moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in front but unlikely to win in the first round of a vote. Friday's vote contested by seven hopefuls could determine the fate of Iran's nuclear stand-off with the West and ties with arch-foe the United States, dubbed the "Great Satan" in Iran.
But whoever wins, real power in the country will still rest with conservative, anti-West religious authorities.
US President George W. Bush criticised Iran's election process in which more than 1,000 would-be candidates were barred from running by the hard-line Guardian Council supervisory body. Eight were allowed to stand, but one hard-liner has quit.
"Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy," Bush said in a statement.
About 300 people protested against the Islamic system in central Tehran, the semi-official ILNA news agency said. It said some were arrested because the demonstration was illegal.
Opinion polls indicate Rafsanjani, 70, who wants better ties with the West, will not win the 50 percent support he needs to avoid a deciding vote with his nearest challenger, possibly on June 24.
"The election ... is one of the most unpredictable in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran ... All pundits believe that the president will be elected in the second round," the reformist Etemad daily said.
The polls show Rafsanjani's main rivals are conservative former police chief Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and reformist Mostafa Moin, an education minister under outgoing President Mohammad Khatami. Some have shown conservative Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has gained ground.
Such polls have often proved unreliable in past elections.
"There is very close rivalry between Moin and Rafsanjani, and also Qalibaf is not in a bad situation," Mohammad Reza Khatami, a Moin aide, told Reuters.
Analysts say an upset Moin victory cannot be ruled out and the outcome of a Rafsanjani run-off against Moin or Qalibaf would be hard to predict.
Rival young campaigners gathered on Tehran's streets Wednesday night, clogging traffic until the early hours of Thursday, in a bid to win over undecided voters.
But some revellers said they came out to enjoy a rare chance to party in public and mingle openly with the opposite sex.
"We don't get any fun. We came here because tonight the police will not touch us. Anyone who votes accepts the Islamic Republic," Mehdi, 23, said as cars passed with music blaring.
Candidates have sought to win over the young, a key constituency in the world's fourth-largest oil exporter where half the population is under 25. Candidates have promised to create more jobs and allow more social freedoms.
Supporters of Moin have complained of beatings by hard-liners during more than two weeks of campaigning, prompting the president to call for action against those responsible.
"I ask you to identify those offenders and introduce them to the judiciary more seriously and more quickly," Khatami said in a letter to the interior and intelligence ministries, Iran's student ISNA news agency reported.
Khatami, who is not allowed to stand for a third four-year term, was elected by landslides in 1997 and 2001 with pledges to make society freer, but his reforms were repeatedly blocked by hard-liners who control the courts and supervisory bodies.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word in matters of state in Iran's hybrid theocracy, has called for a high turnout to make Iran "immune to the enemies' plots".
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari said he expected more than half of the 47 million eligible voters, aged 15 and over, to cast a ballot.
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