TEHRAN - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is maintaining his lead in Iran’s presidential election as the vote count has passed the halfway mark.

The Interior Ministry Election Headquarters has announced that 21,170,263 votes have been counted so far, which represents 61 percent of the total turnout.
The official tally so far stands at:
1. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: 14,011,664 votes (66.18 percent)
2. Mir-Hossein Mousavi: 6,575,844 votes (31.06 percent)
3. Mohsen Rezaii: 397,177 votes (1.87 percent)
4. Mahdi Karroubi: 185,578 (0.87 percent)