Disputed recount finds Iranian election ‘valid’

IRAN’S election oversight body last night declared the hotly-disputed presidential vote valid after a partial recount, rejecting opposition allegations of fraud and further silencing calls for a new vote.

State television reported that the Guardian Council presented the conclusion in a letter to the Interior Minister after a recount of a what was described as a randomly selected 10% of the almost 40 million ballots cast on June 12.

“Few or no errors” were found, Press TV said.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi claims he, not president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was the rightful winner and has called for a new election, something the government has repeatedly rejected.

Mousavi supporters have taken to the streets in protest, outraged by official results that gave Mr Ahmadinejad the victory by a roughly 2-1 margin.

Police and the feared Basij militia have taken increasingly harsh measures against the demonstrators, prompting widespread international criticism.

The recount had appeared to be an attempt to cultivate the image that Iran was seriously addressing fraud claims, while giving no ground in the clampdown on opposition.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the council had already pronounced the results free of major fraud and insisted that Mr Ahmadinejad won by a landslide. And even if errors were found in nearly every one of the votes in the recount Mr Ahmadinejad, according to the government’s count, still would have tallied more votes than Mr Mousavi.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton questioned the recount. “They have a huge credibility gap with their own people as to the election process. And I don’t think that’s going to disappear by any finding of a limited review of a relatively small number of ballots,” she said. Asked if the US would recognise Mr Ahmadinejad as Iran’s legitimate president, she said: “We’re going to take this a day at a time.”

The tensions escalated when Iran detained nine local employees of the British Embassy on suspicion of fomenting or aiding protests.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi said yesterday that five of the Iranian staffers had been released and the remaining four were being interrogated.

Qashqavi said Iran dismissed the idea of downgrading relations, saying: “Reduction of diplomatic ties is not on our agenda for any country, including Britain.”

British prime minister Gordon Brown said Iran’s actions have been “unacceptable, unjustified and without foundation”.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has expressed concern that prominent opposition figures arrested since the protests broke out could be subjected to torture.

It said three senior political leaders are believed to be held in a prison run by the Intelligence Ministry where torture reportedly is widely used.