TO THE HUSTINGS

President Rafsanjani remains by far the odds-on favourite to win another four-year presidential term of office in the June election, but he is more than likely to face a number of serious challenges from both the left and right wings of Iran's political establishment. It is probable that the radicals of the left, epitomised by Mehdi Kharrubi's Society of Combatant Clerics of Tehran, and presently virtually excluded from the Majlis, may put forward a candidate. Ayatollah Musavi Khoemha is being mentioned as a candidate. But the radical left has been largely out-manoeuvred by President Rafsanjani and it is thought doubtful that they would garner much popular support during the elections