On the eve of Friday’s run-off ballot to elect a new president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has appealed for support from ethnic minorities and offered every family in Iran $11,000 worth of shares from privatised companies.

Mr Rafsanjani, at 71 a senior figure since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, faces a stiff challenge from Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, 49, the fundamentalist mayor of Tehran, and is targeting those thought to be worried about Mr Ahmadi-Nejad as president.