Iran election body rules out annulment, ready for partial recount

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

The 12-man Guardian Council said it was ready to re-tally votes in the poll in which hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway winner. 

But the powerful Council rejected reformist calls to annul Friday's election that set off fast-moving political turmoil, riveting attention on the world's fifth biggest oil exporter which is locked in a nuclear dispute with the West.

Iranians outraged by Mirhossein Mousavi's defeat, in what they viewed as a stolen election, plan another rally on Tuesday, even though seven people were killed on Monday on the fringes of a huge march through the streets of Tehran.

Mousavi, however, urged his supporters not to attend the rally "to protect lives," saying it was cancelled. Ahmadinejad's supporters called for a counter-rally at the same Tehran square, possibly setting the scene for more confrontation.

A spokesman for the Guardian Council said only that it was "ready to recount the disputed ballot boxes claimed by some candidates, in the presence of their representatives."

"It is possible that there may be some changes in the tally after the recount," Reuters quoted spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai as telling the Iranian media.

"Based on the law, the demand of those candidates for the cancellation of the vote, this cannot be considered," Kadkhodai said.

Mousavi has appealed to the Guardian Council, the main legislative body of the Islamic Republic, for the election to be annulled, but has said he was not optimistic about its verdict.

VIOLENCE KILLS SEVEN
Seven people were killed in violence that erupted during a massive opposition rally in the heart of Tehran against Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election, news agencies reported earlier on Tuesday.

Tires, dustbins and motorbikes were set ablaze by protestors as hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets in a public outpouring of anger reminiscent of the days of the Islamic revolution in 1979.

State radio said at least seven people were killed when "thugs" attacked and vandalized government buildings at the end of the rally, which had been banned by the authorities as an illegal gathering.

"A military post was attacked with the intention of looting its weapons. Unfortunately, seven of our citizens were killed and a number of them injured," it said.

The mounting protests against Ahmadinejad’s re-election, in a vote that his main defeated challenger Mousavi branded a rigged "charade," are the worst unrest in Tehran in a decade.

In the face of the unrest, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has order a probe into the vote-rigging allegations laid by former wartime premier Mousavi, who had declared himself the victor on polling day Friday.

Violence flared after Mousavi appeared in public Monday for the first time since the election that has highlighted deep divisions in Iran as it grapples with a struggling economy and a standoff with the West over its nuclear works.

"God willing, we will take back our rights," Mousavi shouted from the roof of a car amid a sea of hundreds of thousand of Iranians, young and old, who packed into central Tehran despite the ban.

One policeman said between 1.5 and two million demonstrators, some wearing the green of Mousavi’s campaign color, had swarmed into central Tehran.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani, a conservative rival to Ahmadinejad, blamed the interior minister for attacks on civilians and university students.

INTERNATIONAL BACKLASH

Iran is facing an international backlash over its crackdown against the opposition protestors and the election itself, which returned the combative Ahmadinejad to another four years in power.

In his first public comments since the election, Obama called on Iranian leaders to respect free speech and democracy, saying "it is up to Iranians to make a decision about who Iran’s leaders will be."

"I think its important that moving forward, whatever investigations take place are done in a way that is not resulting in bloodshed and is not resulting in people being stifled in expressing their views," he said.

Obama, who has called for dialogue with the Islamic republic after three decades of hostility, said he was "deeply troubled" by the violence and would stick to tough diplomacy with Iran over its nuclear drive.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has called for the will of the Iranian people to be "fully respected."

European governments also complained about the tactics used against protesters and added their voices to U.S. doubt over the election outcome, with the EU calling on Tehran to launch a probe.

Ahmadinejad himself was in Russia -- a key ally which is helping Iran build a nuclear power plant -- for a security summit being hosted by the Kremlin.

The election outcome dented Western hopes of a change in domestic and foreign policy of the oil-rich OPEC member state, with analysts warning that the country could find itself further isolated from the outside world.

Iran’s election supervisory body the Guardians Council is expected to make a decision in 10 days after Khamenei told it "to precisely examine" Mousavi’s complaints.  

IRANIAN AUTHORITIES DEFIANT

Monday's demonstration came a day after Ahmadinejad addressed a vast victory rally in Tehran to defend the results, saying the people of Iran had triumphed against the "world arrogance" (the West).

The authorities have warned that they would nip any "velvet revolution" in the bud and police said on Sunday they had rounded up 170 people over the protests, including a number of reformist leaders.

There has also been a crack down on local and foreign media, with Mousavi’s own newspaper reportedly suspended and international outlets reporting the arrest and harassment of their journalists.

Some telephone, texting and Internet services have also been disrupted, and protestors have been turning to Twitter to spread word about the dramatic events.

Photo: AFP