The publication of new images and documents regarding the election fraud during the phony recount of the votes has brought new questions to the planners and managers of the June 12 presidential elections.
While Iran’s powerful Guardian Council confirmed ayatollah Khamenei’s position on the elections, after “recounting” some of the ballots, the publication of photographs showing the “recount” process by IRNA state-run news agency.
These photos show a stack of new and “unfolded” ballot slips some of which bear the name of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad written with the same handwriting. The unfolded slips raise questions because normally when a person writes his candidate of choice on the ballot slip, he folds the slip to drop it into the ballot box.
The accidental airing of these unfolded ballot slips by government news agencies became such a hot news item rapidly spreading around the country that the spokesperson of the Guardian Council which is responsible for organizing national elections in Iran, had no choice but to raise the issue at his press conference who said, “just because ballot slips had not been folded is not sufficient proof to show that violations took place. Other evidence must also be presented as proof.”
Earlier, Omidvar Rezaei, a member of Iran’s parliament, the Majlis, and the brother of another defeated candidate Mohsen Rezaei revealed for the first time in a press conference that a close look at some of the ballot boxes showed that “70 to 80 percent of the cast votes had used the same pen to write the name of the candidate of choice and in addition displayed the same handwriting in different ballot boxes.” Omidvar’s remarks were soon confirmed by the display of photographs by the state run news agency IRNA, showing the recount process. In response to the publication of these images – which seems to have happened accidentally - the spokesperson of the Guardian Council Abasali Kadkhodai, mentioned the remarks of Omidvar Rezaei about the handwriting and called on the judiciary to pursue those who questioned the election.
During Tuesday’s press conference of the spokesperson of the Guardian Council, reporters addressed the official and said that there were “reports that the ballot boxes had a hidden compartment between a second hidden casing which contained pre-written ballots.” Kadkhodai refrained from addressing that question and said, “This claim, like the earlier ones, is like saying since there are no reporters in this room, we may conclude that it is empty of any people.” Reporters at the session then asked Kadkhodai whether the council could be considered “impartial” as required by law, after some of its members had publicly expressed their support for Ahmadinejad. The official replied that, “while it was possible that some members of the Council possessed personal opinions, but in their work and the activities regarding the elections their personal opinions had no role.”
Nowruz news website belonging to reformist Mosharekat (participation) front published a table on Tuesday to show that the announced results of the election by the Ministry of Interior were fake by pointing out that at least in 78 towns of the country, the results that were officially announced on June 15 differed from those that were announced on June 23td.
This site also said that 60 towns and 192 districts around the country had recorded over a 100 percent participation in the elections and some cases there was a 211 percent cast vote. In 125 towns around the country, there was 95 percent participation, according to the site’s report.
