Iran Conducts Partial Recount of Votes
By VOA News
29 June 2009
Iranian state media reported a partial recount of votes from the nation's disputed presidential election is underway.
The powerful group that supervises Iran's elections, the Guardian Council, began a recount Monday of 10 percent of random ballot boxes nationwide. The disputed June 12 vote resulted in an official landslide victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Council said Monday its members met with defeated reformist challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi, but the meeting was "ineffective."
Mr. Mousavi has rejected the partial recount and insisted that the results of the election be annulled.
In other news, Iran said it has released five Iranian staffers of the British Embassy in Tehran, days after nine were detained for alleged links to the nation's post-election unrest.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (Monday) condemned the detentions, saying they are "unacceptable, unjustified and without foundation."
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told a news conference Monday that four staffers of the British Embassy still are being held for questioning.
A report Sunday quoted the nation's intelligence minister, Qolam Hosein Mohseni-Ejei, as saying he has proof that some of the local staffers collected news about the recent protests.
Iranian state media also reported Mr. Ahmadinejad has ordered a probe into the death of a young woman named Neda Agha-Soltan, who was shot dead in Tehran's post-election protests.
The widely viewed amateur video of her death has circulated on the Internet and international news broadcasts, and her name has become a rallying cry among demonstrators.
In a letter to Iran's Judiciary Chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, Monday, Mr. Ahmadinejad called her death "completely suspicious" and referred to "vast propaganda by foreign media."
Iranian officials say 17 people were killed in post-election violence, but witnesses say the toll is much higher.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
