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Defeated Karroubi calls for election re-run
[Iran Press TV Latest] Defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi seconds Mir-Hossein Mousavi's calls on Iran's Guardian Council to nullify the June 12 election and called for a re-run. "We expect that you [the Guardian Council] accept the will of the nation by nullifying the election and holding a re-run," Karroubi, the leader of the National Confidence Party (Hezb-e Etemad-e Melli), said in an open letter to the council on Friday. The letter was posted on his party's website and is expected to be circulated in his newspaper's Saturday edition. Opposition rallies have been held on a daily basis in Iran, since the announcement of presidential election results last Friday, in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected with almost two thirds of votes. His main rival, Mousavi, rejected the result as fraudulent and demanded a re-run. Karroubi said 'the absolute majority of Iranians' have objected to the election results, adding that anything other than the nullification of the election results by the Guardian Council would be 'a grave mistake'. The Guardian Council, the body tasked with supervising the electoral process, says it has received 646 complaints from the three presidential candidates -- Karroubi, Mousavi and Mohsen Rezaei. The council has invited the three defeated candidates to discuss their objections on Saturday. Despite Mousavi's insistence on peaceful nature of protests, violence flared in early stages of demonstrations which started in the weekend. At least eight people were killed in Tehran and many others sustained injuries. The 72-year-old cleric sharply criticized the government for 'adding fuel to the fire of the nation's wrath' by trying to suppress 'peaceful gatherings' of the people. "The government has described the people's protest as a protest against the system and has created an atmosphere of fear through censoring the media, cutting mobile phones and text message services," Karroubi said. On Friday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, called for an end to street protests, assuring the public that the Islamic Republic has 'by no means' betrayed the vote of the nation. The Leader, however, maintained that the Guardian Council will look into the complaints of the candidates who are unhappy with the election results. Posted by: Fred 2009-06-20 |
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