PENPIX: Influential figures in Iran's disputed vote

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The following are influential figures in Iran's disputed June presidential election, which has convulsed the country in the most serious unrest since the overthrow of the U.S.-backed shah in 1979.

SUPREME LEADER AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI

Iran's highest authority since 1989, Khamenei has thrown his weight behind hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, blaming the protests on hostile Western powers and "terrorists" and saying they will not make him shift his position.

The leader, is, in theory, answerable to the directly-elected Assembly of Experts which has the power to dismiss him and supervise his performance. In practice, the assembly has never publicly criticized Khamenei.

PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD

The former Revolutionary Guardsman, whose anti-Israel rhetoric and defense of Iran's nuclear program cause alarm in the West, faces fierce domestic resistance over his re-election.

Defeated moderate candidates accuse his interior ministry of election rigging. Ahmadinejad has said the election was "clean and fair" and "posed a great challenge to the West's democracy."

OPPOSITION LEADER MIRHOSSEIN MOUSAVI

Moderate candidate declared second with 34 percent of the vote compared with Ahmadinejad's nearly 63 percent, Mousavi is an establishment figure, who served eight years as prime minister in the first turbulent decade of Iran's clerical rule.

During campaigning he sought to win over conservative voters by urging a return to the "fundamental values" of the republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

A veteran of the Islamic revolution, Mousavi has become a champion of reform by posing the biggest political challenge to the authorities in the past three decades.

Mousavi's supporters took to the streets in their tens of thousands to protest official results of the vote. He formally asked Iran's top legislative body to annul the election. The Guardian Council ruled that out.

Mousavi is backed by two former presidents, reformist Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

DEFEATED CANDIDATE MEHDI KAROUBI

A moderate cleric and strong critic of Ahmadinejad, Karoubi joined the reformist camp when fellow-cleric Mohammad Khatami was president from 1997 to 2005. However, while he was parliament speaker from 2000 to 2004, he sometimes buckled to pressure from religious and security hardliners who blocked Khatami's reforms.

Karoubi, who was declared to have come in fourth in the June 12 vote, says the election should be annulled.

FORMER PRESIDENT AKBAR HASHEMI RAFSANJANI

Pragmatic dealmaker who leads the Assembly of Experts and is closer to the reformist camp as he seeks to prevent hardliners from monopolizing power. Rafsanjani's daughter Faezeh was detained for a few hours after taking part in post-election protests during which authorities said 10 people were killed.

The presidential election result could spell the end of Rafsanjani's political power after three decades of being widely considered to be Iran's second most powerful figure after the supreme leader.

Ahmadinejad was the surprise victor in the 2005 presidential race after a second-round vote against Rafsanjani, Iran's president for much of the 1990s.

FORMER PRESIDENT MOHAMMAD KHATAMI

The mid-ranking cleric's tough statement on post-election protests left no doubt about which side a man whom many feel is too nice for the cut-throat world of politics has chosen.

Khatami warned the establishment on Sunday of the "dangerous" consequences of banning street protests. Many of Khatami's allies have been arrested in a crackdown on pro-reform camp since the election.

GRAND AYATOLLAH MONTAZERI

Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Hossein Ali Montazeri called for three days of national mourning for Iranians killed in street protests over the disputed presidential vote.

An architect of the revolution, he is among moderate Iranian clerics who has accused the authorities of election rigging, in clear defiance of the country's leadership.

Increasingly angry rhetoric between moderate and conservative clerics has sparked speculation about a possible rift inside the establishment over the vote.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi, editing by Philippa Fletcher)