Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday an election in which he secured another four-year term was "free and healthy", rejecting allegations of irregularities by a moderate rival in the vote, Reuters reported.
"People voted for my policies," the conservative president said in televised address a day after the disputed election.
"It was a free and healthy election," he said, without making direct reference to assertions by former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi that there were many violations in the vote.
As he was speaking, supporters of Mousavi clashed with police in various places in Tehran, chanting anti-Ahmadinejad slogans, witnesses said.
"Everybody should respect people's vote ... we need a calm atmosphere to build the country," Ahmadinejad said.
He also took a swipe at his opponents in the election, which was marked by unprecedented mudslinging.
"I named some people during the campaign. I was accused of insulting them, but it is not an insult," he said, referring to his comments about former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a backer of Mousavi.
"Those who have revolutionary background are not allowed to have extravagant demands," he said.