World

Ahmadinejad Still A Winner After Partial Vote Recount

by Yuliya Talmazan | June 29, 2009 at 12:13 pm

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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is still a winner of Iran's Presidential Election after a partial vote recount on Monday, according to Iran’s Guardian Council. The results of June 12 election were disputed by Iran’s opposition leaders, prompting the ongoing civil unrests that have led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests. As the result, the Guardian Council of Iran agreed to partial vote recount to quell the allegations that the vote was rigged.

In total, 10% of the votes were recounted. It was not clear whether the portion of the votes that was recounted came from different municipalities in Iran or one geographic area. Hence, the randomness of the recount is in question. There are also concerns about the impartiality of the Guardian Council of Iran given it is appointed by Iran’s Supreme Leader, who gave his support for President Ahmadinejad early on. Opposition leaders are not recognizing the results of the recount and are still demanding the annulment of the election results followed by a re-run of June 12 election. No Mousavi observers were present at the recount.

State television said that Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the council's secretary, had presented Sadegh Mahsouli, the minister of the interior, with a letter saying it had approved the election after a recount of 10 per cent of the ballots.

Afshin Molavi, an Iran expert at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington DC, told Al Jazeera that the "Guardian Council is not necessarily an impartial arbiter here".

Molavi pointed out that the council's members are all appointed directly or indirectly by Ayatollah Ai Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, who has backed Ahmadinejad's victory.