Iran Goes into Selective Vote Recount After Dirty Tricks Claims

AFP, Yahoo! News:

Iranian authorities have agreed to recount a small selection of ballot boxes from presidential elections that gave a radical hardliner a shock second place, following allegations over vote-rigging. READ MORE

Three candidates in the vote have complained of smear campaigns and organised plots in Friday's vote, which saw hardline Tehran mayor Mahmood Ahmadinejad come a close second behind moderate conservative cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Rafsanjani now faces the challenge of persuading dispirited reformists to support him against Ahmadinejad in next Friday's run-off, one of the most crucial political battles in recent Iranian history.

The Guardians Council, an unelected body that oversees the vote, said Monday that it had agreed to allow a recount of 100 randomly-selected ballot boxes out of a total of more than 41,000.

"The Guardians Council, despite the fact that it has not received any complaints from the candidates of breaches in the prescribed time, will recount to produce a more accurate result," state television said.

It said the recount had to be completed by 6:00 pm (1330 GMT) Monday, so the second round of the election could go ahead as scheduled.

Rafsanjani and two other defeated candidates have made public allegations of dirty tricks. Two reformist newspapers were forbidden to appear on Monday for publishing claims of vote rigging.

Breaking a silence he has conspicuously maintained since the vote, Rafsanjani called on Iranians to back him in the run-off against extremists who he said had "tarnished" the poll.

"The Islamic revolution is at a difficult crossroads, facing domestic and foreign threats and adventurism," he said.

Centrist cleric Mehdi Karoubi, who came third in the poll, has asked Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei to prevent "illegal intervention" by the Revolutionary Guards and the unelected Guardians Council in the elections.

"I ask you to prevent a section of the Revolutionary Guards and Basij (vigilante militia) from engaging in political activities," said Karoubi, who resigned from all of his posts in the Islamic regime.

Reformist officials said that two newspapers, Aftab and Eghbal, had been banned for attempting to publish Karoubi's letter.

"We do not know if this measure only applies to today's issue or if it is a more long-term ban," said reformist official Issa Saharkiz.

The camp of reformist candidate Mostafa Moin, who trailed in fifth in the vote, has also alleged the Guardians Council organised a 140 billion rials (15.5 million dollars) operation involving 300,000 people.

The thrust of the allegations appears not to concern the stuffing of ballot boxes, but rather organised campaign to bring out right-wing voters and sway undecided Iranians through cash payments.

Meanwhile, Iran's vanquished opposition called on its supporters to back Rafsanjani -- a regime veteran and traditional foe -- even as prominent dissident figures maintained their calls for a boycott.

"The danger which threatens the country today is that of the barracks and soldiers directly intervening in the election and the politics of the country," warned Iran's main reform party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF).

"We hold the hand of all partisans of freedom, democracy and human rights," the party added. Its call to vote for Rafsanjani was echoed by the other main leftist party, the Organisation of Mujahedeen of the Islamic Revolution (OMIR).

It remains to be seen whether the reformers' natural support base -- dispirited after eight years of President Mohammad Khatami's reform programme being frustrated -- will follow the calls from their leaders to vote.

Two prominent dissidents, Nobel Peace Prize winning right lawyer Shirin Ebadi and Hashem Aghajari, once sentenced to death for blasphemy, have said they would not be voting.

While Rafsanjani, a pillar of the regime who served as president from 1989 to 1997, is no darling of the reformers, a win by Ahmadinejad is an even less palatable prospect for leftists.

Many fear that Ahmadinejad would roll back the cautious social reform that has taken place in recent years and further antagonise Iran's relations with the international community, already tense over its nuclear programme.