Thaindian News

Tehran, June 29 (DPA) Iran’s legislative body, the Guardian Council, gave up hopes of representatives of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi appearing for an election review process and would start a re-count in front of state television cameras, the news network Khabar reported Monday.
Khabar quoted council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei as saying that the representatives of both Moussavi and fellow presidential contender Mehdi Karroubi were supposed to join the review panel by noon Monday but because of their absence, the council had ordered the start of the recount of 10 percent of the ballots without the two defeated candidates’ representatives.

The council last Wednesday postponed the announcement of the final results of the June 12 presidential election and gave representatives of Moussavi and Karroubi the chance to attend.

The final announcement was expected to come either later Monday or by Tuesday, depending on whether Friday, a holiday in Iran, was considered within the five-day extension period.

The spokesman told Fars news agency earlier Monday that Moussavi had a meeting with the panel in charge of the election review and presented a new proposal for settling the crisis over charges of fraud in this month’s vote, which sparked opposition protests.

The spokesman did not give any details about the new proposal but said that the special panel was evaluating it.

The special panel was formed to review, together with the 12 members of the Guardian Council, the disputed election results that led to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial re-election.

Moussavi had rejected an invitation to join the panel because, in his opinion, some of its members were pro-Ahmadinejad and, therefore, not impartial.

Moussavi said that because of widespread fraud and the open support of Guardian Council members for Ahmadinejad, there should be an annulment of the June 12 election and a date should be set for a new election.