Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani complained Saturday of alleged illegal activities against him in the presidential elections he lost unexpectedly to his hardline rival.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Rafsanjani as saying that aruthless campaign was launched before and in the election to "destroy his image and that of his family".

Rafsanjani also pointed to some "illegally organized interference in the polls".

"An organized and illegal way has been adopted by some people tointervene in the election," he was quoted by the student-run ISNA news agency.

"I am not willing to present a complaint to those who have shownthat they cannot or do not want to do anything. I will just leave it to God," he said, referring to the hardline election and legislation supervisory body, the Guardians Council.

Rafsanjani, a 71-year-old pragmatic former president, said that he decided to stand in the election in order to serve the people, the country and the belief.

Therefore, he urged everyone to help president-elect Mahmood Ahmadinejad, an ultra-conservative Tehran mayor.

Earlier in the day, Iranian Interior Ministry announced that Ahmadinejad had beaten Rafsanjani to become the country's next president in the runoff election held on Friday.

Ahmadinejad had won 17.24 million votes, or 61.69 percent of eligible votes, while his rival Rafsanjani had garnered over 10 million votes, which made up 35.92 percent of the total, the ministry said.

Rafsanjani has always been the front runner before the presidential runoff, and he even stood ahead of Ahmadinejad in the first round of voting on June 17.

Source: Xinhua