Guardian Council says voter turnout was greater than 100 per cent in only 50 cities
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Some indications suggest that Iran’s ongoing crisis is transcending clashes in the streets and might have reached, at least partially, the boardrooms of the clerical regime itself. Some events are point at least in that direction.
Speaking last night on state television Guardian Council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei (pictured) said that in some cases votes cast in some cities were greater than the number of people eligible to vote.
He was reacting to complaints filed by the three candidates who lost on 12 June, especially Mohsen Rezaee, who had claimed that the problem of a turnover greater than 100 per cent had been reported in 80 to 170 cities. Instead, Kadkhodaei said, “the incident has happened in only 50 cities.”
Kadkhodaei went further saying that the voter turnout of above 100 per cent in some cities is a normal phenomenon because there is no legal limitation for people to vote for the presidential elections in another city or province to which people often travel or commute.
Moreover, although the discrepancy in vote tally might reach three million, it would not noticeably change the outcome of the election, he said.
At the request of the candidates, the council could never the less re-count the ballot boxes in the areas in question to determine “whether the possible change in the tally is decisive in the election results,” Khabaronline reported.
At the same time an important Arab satellite TV network, Al Arabiya, reported that Iranian religious clerks in Qom, as well as members of the Assembly of Experts headed by Rafsanjani, were behind a move to release Rafsanjani’s daughter, who had been detained, ostensibly for her own safety.
In the Shia holy city of Qom (at one time home of Khomeini) presidential election winner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a meeting with religious scholars urged them to “play a crucial role by exalting the divine causes of Islam’s independence and defending the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Taken individually such news may not prove anything. But put together they do suggest a possible divergence between the 12-member Guardian Council which supervises the elections from candidate selection to post-election checks, half of whose members are appointed by Supreme Leader Khamenei (who has openly sided with Ahmadinejad), and the Assembly of Experts which appoints and can, in theory, remove the supreme leader.
This might also explain why elements in Kadkhodaei’s statement might appear to be a bit contradictory in relation to the rumours of an ongoing power struggle among ayatollah.
Meanwhile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran has reported that in addition to clashes in Tehran other information has come out of Iran indicating that protests were taking place elsewhere in the country.
In cities like Shiraz and Mashhad “students and youths” are said to have taken to the streets yesterday afternoon, where they clashed with security forces.
Many people are reported wounded. (PD)
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