Iran opposition keeps up rallies defying ban
Tens of thousands of supporters of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi held a new rally in Tehran on Thursday to mourn the deaths of slain protesters, witnesses told AFP.
Chanting "Peace be upon (Prophet) Mohammed and his family", the protesters, many dressed in black, marched in south Tehran and were expected to be joined by Mousavi himself, the witnesses added.
One witness said protestors were carrying pictures of Mousavi and placards like "We have not had people killed to compromise and accept a doctored ballot box" and "Silent, keep calm."
The rally was held despite a ban by the interior ministry. The authorities have also barred the foreign media from covering such "unauthorised" events.
Electoral watchdog the Guardians Council said it had received a total of 646 complaints of irregularities in last Friday's election from the three defeated presidential candidates.
It said it had invited the trio to set out their grievances on Saturday, with a decision on Sunday about any possible recount of votes in the poll, which saw incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected.
The council's spokesman Abbasali Khadkhodai told state television that one candidate had cited 390 violations, a second 160 and the third 96.
He did not identify the candidate making each number of violations.
The three defeated candidates are moderate ex-premier Mir Hossein Mousavi, reformist former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and the conservative former head of the elite Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai.
Official results gave incumbent hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad outright victory in the election without the need for any second round run-off.
Without revealing his identity, Khadkhodai said one of the candidates had cited 390 violations of which 51 cases were of ballot paper shortages or of delays in delivering them to the polling stations.
The other complaints of violations he made included encouraging people to vote for a specific candidate, preventing his representatives from being present in polling stations, and not stamping the identity cards of voters, the spokesman added.
Facing their biggest crisis since the 1979 revolution, Iran's Islamic rulers have gone on the offensive, arresting protesters and prominent reformists, tightening their grip on the media and lashing out at "meddling" by foreign foes, including the United States.
Despite the crackdown, defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi called on his supporters to take to the streets again on Thursday dressed in black in a sign of mourning for protesters slain in post-election clashes.
those killed in clashes.
The call for opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to rally again was in open defiance of the country's supreme leader, who has urged the nation to unite behind the Islamic state. It came a day after tens of thousands marched silently down a main street of the capital, brandishing posters of Mousavi and waving V-for-victory signs, amateur video showed. Some covered their mouths with masks.
International news organisations have been banned from covering the protests over last Friday's election, which the government declared hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by a landslide. Mousavi and his supporters claim Friday's election was rigged and he was the true winner.
Tens of thousands of people joined what was billed as a "silent" protest rally on Wednesday, wearing green wrist- and head-bands, the colour of Mousavi's campaign, and carrying banners accusing Ahmadinejad of having "stolen" their votes in Friday's poll, witnesses said.
State television broadcast brief footage of the rally, which was staged despite an official ban on such gatherings. The foreign media is barred from covering such events under restrictions imposed since the wave of public anger took hold in Iran, exposing deep divisions in the oil-rich nation.
At least seven people have been killed and many more wounded in the worst violence for at least a decade, with protests reported in Tehran and other major cities.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini said he would consider a partial recount of the election that brought Ahmadinejad back to power in a landslide, after his defeated challengers lodged formal complaints of vote-rigging.
But Mousavi is insisting that the result of what he has described as a "shameful fraud" be annulled and a new vote called.
World governments have raised concern about the situation in Iran, particularly the violence and widespread arrests, with some European leaders publicly speaking of fraud and irregularities.
Warning they would crush any "velvet revolution," the authorities have rounded up scores of people, including prominent reformists and even former government officials.
In the latest sweep, Iran on Wednesday arrested Ebrahim Yazdi and Mohammad Tavasoli, veteran revolutionaries and leaders of Iran's Liberation Movement, the Etemad Melli newspaper reported.
In a sign of cracks emerging within the Iranian elite, a number of influential clerics have spoken out about the election results and the subsequent crackdowns.
The top clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, hailed the mass turnout in the election but stayed silent on the disputed results.
"We congratulate the excited, epic-making and alert presence of 85 percent of the revolutionary people in the June 12 election, which was a display of the Islamic republic's greatness and dignity throughout the world," it said in a statement read out on state television.
The Basij militia, at the forefront of action against protesters, called for defeated candidates to dissociate themselves from "the rioters" and called on all sides to "avoid provocative action".
In a rare move, Khamenei is due to lead the main weekly Muslim prayers in Tehran on Friday, in the presence of the Basij.
Mousavi and reformist former president Mohammad Khatami, who was succeeded by Ahmadinejad in 2005, issued a joint letter on Wednesday urging the Iranian authorities to release those arrested and halt the violence.
"We ask you to take all the necessary measures to put an end to today's worrying situation, to stop the violent actions against people and to free those arrested," said the letter published on Mousavi's website.
Iran has fought back against the international outcry, on Wednesday summoning the Swiss ambassador, who represents US interests in Iran, to protest at what it called "interfering remarks" by US officials, state television said.
US President Barack Obama, who has called for dialogue with Iran after three decades of severed ties, has voiced "deep concerns" about the aftermath of the election but said it would not be productive to be seen as "meddling."
In new measures against the media, Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards told websites to delete material that "creates tensions" or face legal action, and issued a new warning to the foreign media, accusing some outlets of becoming the "mouthpiece of the rioters' movement."
Pictures, videos and updates from the streets of Iran continue to pour in to social-networking and image-sharing websites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube despite Iranian efforts to cut off mobile phones and the Internet.
Sometimes jumpy footage broadcast on the Internet from amateur videos has shown chaotic and sometimes brutal scenes of violence, with police beating protesters and one image purportedly showing a protester shot dead during massive street protests on Monday.
The combative Ahmadinejad -- who set Iran on a collision course with the West during his first four-year term -- has remained defiant, saying his victory showed faith in his government of "honesty and service to the people."
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