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.
