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Iran's Mousavi petitions Khamenei to probe vote
 [Al Arabiya Latest] Defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi submitted a petition to the supreme leader to call for an investigation into elections results that the defeated candidates said showed 646 violations that saw incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad win by a landslide. As Mousavi called for the formation of an unbiased committee whose mission would be to probe violations that took place before and during the election process the Islamic Republic's top legislative body, Guardians Council, agreed to meet election candidates on Saturday to discuss complaints. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all matters of state, said he was asking the Guardians Council, a 12-member body made up of jurists and clerics, to examine the complaints of irregularities. But Mousavi's petition set a list of demands that the committee being formed should adhere to and called for non biased members of country's top governing bodies to be part of the committee. Mousavi also laid out a list of issues he would like investigated including but not limited to the interference of the authorities in the elections, the abuse of power, the number of voters and vote buying. Meanwhile Iran's Intelligence Ministry said it had uncovered a foreign-linked terrorist plot to plant bombs in mosques and other crowded places in Tehran during the June 12 presidential election. State broadcaster IRIB quoted a ministry statement as saying several terrorist groups had been discovered, adding they were linked to Iran's foreign enemies, including Israel. "Members of one of the uncovered networks were planning to plant bombs on election day at various crowded Tehran spots, including Ershad and Al-Nabi mosques," the statement said, referring to two prominent mosques in the capital. It said this plot was uncovered on election day. 646 violations Meanwhile a Guardians Council spokesman, Abbasali Khadkhodai, told state television that one candidate had cited 390 violations, a second 160 and the third 96. He did not identify the candidate making each number of violations. The three defeated candidates include Mousavi, reformist former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and the conservative former head of the elite Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai. Official results gave Ahmadinejad outright victory in the election without the need for any second round run-off. Without revealing his identity, Khadkhodai said one of the candidates had cited 390 violations of which 51 cases were of ballot paper shortages or of delays in delivering them to the polling stations.
The 86-strong body is headed by influential cleric and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was the target of mudslinging during the campaign by Ahmadinejad. The Assembly of Experts blamed the "enemy" for creating "unrest and riots," which have been labeled as the worst show of government disapproval since the 1979 revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Shah. Posted by: Fred 2009-06-19 |
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