‎Predictions about the engineered implementation of the eight Majlis elections (held in March ‎‎2008) turned out to be true. Before people returned from their Iranian New Year's trips (in Iran ‎known as the Nowruz) and independent and reformists newspapers resumed publication, the ‎appointed Guardian Council confirmed the results of Tehran's elections, completely disregarding ‎the assertions and complaints of election violations. ‎

In the midst of this debacle, the Guardian Council's disregard for the requests of Khatami ‎‎(former President) and Karoubi (former Majlis Speaker) to recount Tehran's votes and provide ‎computerized reports of each district's results is of importance. The response to these two ‎individual’s complaint came not from a high governmental official, but from a low level, junior ‎clerk, implying that, for the Iranian regime, Mr. Khatami and Mr. Karoubi have no significance ‎as leaders of the reformist movement. ‎

In this connection, Taghiabadi, the Guardian Council's special prosecutor in the district of ‎Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Islamshahr, told the Fars News Agency: "Due to the monitoring of ‎the Guardian Council and party representatives in the gathering and counting of ballots, it is ‎impossible to recount Tehran's votes." ‎

Before examining submitted complains and allegations, he said, "The eight Majlis elections were ‎among those with the most integrity in terms of implementation, oversight, and vote counting." ‎In this interview, the requests made by Khatami and Karoubi are degraded to be requests by ‎‎"certain individuals and groups." Taghiabadi also advised candidates to "prepare for runoff ‎elections instead of wasting time." ‎

Following Taghiabadi's remarks, the spokesperson for the Guardian Council announced what he ‎had made reference to in an interview with the Fars News Agency: "Election results in Tehran ‎and 35 other electoral districts have been fully approved." With these remarks, Abbas Ali ‎Kadkhodaei provided support for the viewpoint that reformists must forget about participating in ‎elections until they can guarantee the accuracy of the results. Perhaps for this reason a rumor has ‎began circulating in political circles that reformist candidates who are facing opponents in the ‎second round of elections have resigned and decided not to participate, because the regime has ‎already decided on the results of those elections. ‎

And just as they played an active role in organizing and mobilizing the reformists forces until ‎now, one expects that Khatami and Karoubi to continue to support the remaining eight or ten ‎reformist candidates and not to abandon them. When reformist candidates in Tehran's runoff ‎election decide to resign in protest, it is normal to expect Khatami and Karoubi to announce ‎clearly that their recommendation to the group is none other than not to participate. ‎

By doing this, Khatami and Karoubi will be sending a clear signal to different groups. This ‎action will not only send a clear message to the disqualified candidates who joined the race on ‎their recommendations, to the accepted candidates who lost the elections, and to the people who ‎opted to vote but whose votes are in limbo, it will also strengthen the pro-democracy and pro-‎reform movement and thus clarify the future path. And although late, this will be a necessary ‎message for any "free, healthy, and fair" elections in Iran.‎