Polls remained open in Iran tonight, three hours after the end of official voting, with President Ahmadinejad’s representatives declaring victory despite a huge turnout that is expected to favour his rival.

Officials estimated that at least 70 per cent of the electorate will have voted, one of the highest turnouts since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister who wants better relations with the West and a more liberal domestic agenda, was predicted to benefit from the overwhelming turnout after an unexpected groundswell of support.

Voting was extended until at least 9pm (1630 GMT) because of heavy queues at polling stations, said the Interior Ministry.

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The democratic genie is out of the bottle in Iran

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The surprise claim of victory from Mr Ahmadinejad’s camp came a few hours after Mr Mousavi’s aides made a similar call.

Both sides have predicted outright victory in the race to be elected president by securing more than half of the vote and avoiding the need for a second round run-off.

“I can say that based on our surveys . . . Mousavi is getting 58-60 per cent of the vote and we are the winner,” said Sadegh Kharazi, an ally of Mr Mousavi.

An adviser to Mr Ahmadinejad, Ali Asghar Zarei, dismissed the claims and responded: “With 60 per cent of the votes and we are certain that the election will end in the first round in his favour.”

The results will not be announced until tomorrow, but many of Mr Mousavi’s supporters claimed that the only way the President could now maintain power was to fix the vote.

It is widely believed that the 2005 election was marred by fraud and experts estimate that up to four million votes could be rigged this year. However, with the turnout so high, even that may not be enough.

There were some early reports of opposition observers being barred from entering polling stations and an aide to Mr Mousavi said some polling centres in north western and southern provinces had run out of ballots. He claimed that this was a deliberate attempt by the government to keep people from voting.

Mr Ahmadinejad's other opponents in the election, including the liberal cleric Mehdi Karoubi and Mohsen Rezaie, a former Revolutionary Guard leader, appealed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian Supreme Leader, to ensure that there is no vote rigging.

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