Ahmadinejad secures 'nearly 70% of votes' so far

Iran’s Interior Ministry has released partial results showing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the lead, having secured nearly 70% of the votes counted so far.

Senior ministry official Kamran Daneshjoo said Ahmadinejad had 68.8% of the more than 10 million ballots counted so far. His main reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi had 28.8%, the official said.

Voting ended at midnight local time after the polling stations were kept open late to handle the unusually high turnout.

Al-Jazeera television cited the ministry as saying about 20% of votes had been counted so far.

The government has not yet released the total number of voters.

At a press conference as the polls closed, Mousavi told reporters he was “definitely” the winner in the election.