Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been elected Iran's sixth chief executive in the ninth presidential race on June 25, 2005 by winning 17 million votes against 10 million garnered by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
The Interior Ministry gave Ahmadinejad 61.8 per cent of the vote over his moderate rival, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who had 35.7 per cent.
Born in Garmsar, southeast of Tehran, to a blacksmith's family, Ahmadinejad migrated with his family to Tehran when he was one-year-old, according to IRNA news agency.
Ahmadinejad, 49, majored in civil engineering at the University of Science and Technology. He studies for his Master's at the same university in 1986 and earned his Ph.D in 1987 in the field of engineering and traffic transport planning.
With the start of the war with Iraq in 1980, Ahmadinejad joined compatriots on the western fronts to fight against the country's enemy and joined the special forces of the Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps (IRGC) in 1986.
He served as governor of Maku and Khoy cities in West Azarbaijan province for four years during the 1980s and as an advisor to the governor general of Kurdestan province for two years.
While serving as advisor to the Ministry of Culture in 1993, he was appointed governor general of the northwestern province of Ardebil. He was selected as the exemplary governor general for three consecutive years.
Ahmadinejad ended his tenure as Ardebil governor general in 1997 and joined the scientific board of Civil Engineering College of University of Science and Technology. He carried out several scientific, cultural, political and social activities and was elected as Tehran's mayor in 2003 by the Tehran City Council.
© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
