Reformist clerics protest Iran ballot

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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A pro-reform clerical group protested against the official results of Iran's June 12 presidential election on Sunday, underlining the splits in the ruling elite.

Ali Reza Beheshti, 47, a close ally to reformist presidential candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi and son of one of the main leaders of the 1979 Islamic revolution, also urged the parliament to reverse the election results, saying that "people expect their representatives to represent them and not to defend authorities by any means."

A group of reformist clerics has called Iran's presidential vote invalid and contradicted official results, in a statement made available to Agence France-Presse news agency. Blasting the official electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, the Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers said it no longer had the "right to judge in this case as some of its members have lost their impartial image in the eyes of the public."

Iran's leadership has been grappling with how to handle fallout from the elections, which critics maintain President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by fraud. On Tuesday, the un-elected 12-member council upheld the re-election of Ahmadinejad over complaints of fraud from his challengers that had brought hundreds of thousands out onto the streets.

The reformist clerics said the council "did not pay attention" to the complaints lodged by defeated candidates Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. "The voice of people seeking justice was marred by violence which unfortunately left several dead and wounded and hundreds arrested," they said.

"How can one accept the legitimacy of the election just because the Guardians Council says so? Can one say that the government born out of these infringements is a legitimate one?"

The clerical group from Qom, the clerical nerve center of Iran, is a pro-reformist body seen as a counter to the conservative Qom Seminary Scholars Association. Government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham is a council member. The reformist clerics also urged the authorities to release those arrested in post-election protests.

’Dismiss Ahmadinejad’

As the country's conservative political establishment upped pressure on the reformists, the son of an Iranian revolutionary icon called on parliament to dismiss Ahmadinejad from his post.

"I wish the lawmakers would respect the demands of the majority of their constituents" and submit a bill disqualifying the president, Beheshti was quoted as saying on the pro-Mousavi Web site, Norooznews. Beheshti, who ran Mousavi's now-banned Kalemeh newspaper, is the younger son of Ayatollah Mohammad Hossein Beheshti, Iran's top judge who was killed in a bombing in 1981. Another defeated candidate, Mahdi Karroubi, also said he would continue his fight even though "we may face difficulties on the way," he was quoted as saying Sunday on his Web site. The comment came in a speech to his supporters late Saturday in which he also said that many lawmakers, "including conservatives, do not support the winner of the election."

Also on Sunday, the conservative Kayhan newspaper ran its second consecutive editorial targeting Mousavi and his backers, dubbing them as dangerous in comments highlighting the government's predicament. "How should the Islamic Republic treat such groups? They would be a dangerous opposition if they were to win, and set the streets on fire if they lose," the Associated Press quoted Sunday's editorial as saying. "The meaning of such behaviors is that they do not accept the system," or the Islamic republic.

A day earlier, the paper ran another editorial accused Mousavi of being an American agent and suggested he be tried for treason, raising the possibility that that Mousavi could be arrested and charged like many other pro-reform figures. The weeks of unrest that immediately followed the vote have largely died down amid a crackdown by authorities. But reformists have pressed their cause, demanding recounts, appealing to the all-powerful Guardian Council and to the parliament. The detention of protesters and reports of street violence have further tarnished the image of a government already criticized by many Western nations for a litany of issues.