[Reuters.]
Iran’s Guardian Council, the ruling body of clerics that is supreme above all else in the Islamic Republic, has reported that many voting regions in Iran recorded more voters than actual potential voters in the area.
“Statistics provided by the candidates, who claim more than 100% of those eligible have cast their ballot in 80-170 cities are not accurate — the incident has happened in only 50 cities.”
The Guardian Council added that this often does happen because voters may commute to vote in more than one city, such a practice is actually not illegal under Iranian law.
This announcement should not be seen as a reflection that the Guardian Council is endorsing the view that the election results were suspect at best. Above 100% voter turnout is, at the Guardian noted, a standard irregularity and nothing to initially cause concern about the results.
The Guardian Council has, in fact, stated that their will be no annulment of the election results that saw incumbent and conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reelected in a landslide that millions of Iranians saw as being fabricated.
The impartiality of the Guardian Council remains in question since it endorsed in unsubtle fashion Ahmadinejad’ reelection.
Since the election, millions of Iranians have taken to the streets to protest the results. Several protesters have been killed and hundreds of opposition figures arrested. It was such demonstrations in the first place that actuated a Council review. But that process has ended now with predictable conclusions.
Iranians continue to protest despite the Supreme Leader’s warning of death for those who do.
