Interior Ministry Official Arrested For Objecting To Election Supervisors

BBC Monitoring Service, Monsters and Critics:

An informed source at the Interior Ministry has reported the arrest of the Interior Ministry's director-general for parliamentary affairs. He told correspondents on Friday afternoon [24 June] that: Mirbaqeri, the Interior Ministry's director-general for parliamentary affairs, who was, as the special inspector of the Ministry, inspecting polling stations in Tehran, was arrested in a polling station in south Tehran by members of a security organization. READ MORE

The informed source said: After warning the supervisors and the representatives of a certain candidate at the polling station, Mirbaqeri was involved in a confrontation and arrested.

Meanwhile, the official representing the governor of Kuhdasht [region] in that constituency has also been arrested.

The informed source also said that a group claiming to be "Promoting Good and Prohibiting Vice" has prevented some people from voting in the northern parts of Tehran.

The source stressed that the Interior Ministry is trying to secure the release of the detainees.

Source: IRNA news agency, Tehran, in Persian 1557 gmt 24 Jun 05

BBC Mon Alert ME1 MEPol sb