Iran’s top legislative body yesterday ruled out annulling a disputed presidential poll that has prompted the biggest street protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution, but said it was prepared for a partial recount.
In what appeared to be a first concession by authorities to the protest movement, the 12-man Guardian Council said it was ready to re-tally votes in the poll in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway winner.
But the council rejected reformist calls to annul Friday’s election that set off swift-moving political turmoil, riveting attention on the world’s fifth-biggest oil exporter which is locked in a nuclear dispute with the West.
Supporters of Mirhossein Mousavi, outraged at his defeat in what they viewed as a stolen election, have planned another rally for tomorrow, even though seven people were killed on Monday on the fringes of a huge march through the streets of Tehran.
Mousavi urged people not to attend the banned rally at Vali-ye Asr Square in Tehran “to protect lives,” saying it was cancelled, but it was not clear if the call was heeded.
Supporters posted defiant messages on Twitter, calling for the demonstration to go ahead and offering security updates.
State TV showed live pictures of what it said were Ahmadinejad supporters gathering at the Vali-ye Asr Square, showing thousands of people, some waving Iranian flags, possibly setting the scene for more confrontation.
Iranian state TV said yesterday the “main agents” in post-election unrest had been arrested with explosives and guns. It gave no further details in a breaking news headline.
Further protests, especially if they are maintained on the same scale, would be a direct challenge to the authorities who have kept a tight grip on dissent since the 1979 overthrow of the US-backed shah after months of demonstrations.
Illustrating Iran’s sensitivity to how the world views the heightened tensions, authorities yesterday banned foreign journalists from leaving their offices to cover street protests.
“No journalist has permission to report or film or take pictures in the city,” a Culture Ministry official said.
US President Barack Obama said he was deeply troubled by the post-election violence and that protesters who had taken to the streets had inspired the world.
A spokesman for the council, which groups clerics and Islamic law experts as a constitutional watchdog, said only that it was “ready to recount the disputed ballot boxes claimed by some candidates, in the presence of their representatives.”
“It is possible that there may be some changes in the tally after the recount,” spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai said. “Based on the law, the demand of those candidates for the cancellation of the vote, this cannot be considered,” he told state TV.
Iran’s English-language Press TV said seven people were killed and several wounded at the end of Monday’s rally — a mainly peaceful gathering attended by many tens of thousands — when “thugs” tried to attack a military post in central Tehran.
An Iranian photographer at the scene had said Islamic militiamen opened fire when people in the crowd attacked a post of the Basij religious militia.
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