Iran Feature: Renewed Claims That Presidential Election Was Manipulated

Earlier this week, a five-part video (Part 1 posted below)  surfaced on YouTube. The footage is of a speech by Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour --- one of the key figures in the creation of Lebanon's Hezbollah, Minister of Interior in Mir Hossein Mousavi's Government in the 1980s, Ambassador to Syria, and head of the Committee for Protecting the People's Vote in 2009.

Writing for Tehran Bureau, Muhammadi Sahimi summarises Mohtashamipour's claims over the disputed June 2009 Presidential election:

*The Interior Ministry published more than 59 million forms for voting, whereas the government had announced that the number of eligible voters was a little over 46 million. However, despite the excess forms, many voting stations around the country announced by noon on 12 June that they had run out of forms.

Mohtashamipour argues that authorities had to make the announcement because they had already "packed" boxes with fraudulent votes. They feared that if voting continued, the number of votes would far exceed the number of eligible voters.

*From Thursday, 11 June, the Ministry of Communications cut off all links between cell phones of the polling station monitors for Mousavi and another candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, and of the headquarters of the Committee for Protecting People's Votes.

The claim echoes that of a Revolutionary Guard commander, in an audio leaked earlier this year, in summer 2009. 

*At 4 p.m. on 12 June, five hours before voting ended, Raja News, linked to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced that Ahmadinejad had been reelected with 63% of the vote, the same percentage that the Ministry of Interior and the Guardian Council late on the night of 12 June and over following days.

*Mousavi's and Karroubi's monitors were barred for many hours from the Ministry of Interior building during the evening of 12 June as the counting of votes took place. By the time they were allowed to enter, state television was broadcasting "results", even though the locations where votes were supposedly cast were not showing any numbers.

And there is a sequel --- reported yesterday on EA --- to Mohtashamipour's claims: Ali Shakouri Rad, a leading member of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, was in a debate at Lorestan University with Abdolreza Davari, former director of the Islamic Republic News Agency and Ahmadinejad supporter.

Shakouri Rad said in the debate that on the afternoon of 12 June, Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, head of judiciary Sadegh Larijani, and candidate Mohsen Rezaei called Mousavi to congratulate him on his victory.

Shakouri Rad is not able expand further on this statement: he was arrested yesterday, accused of "spreading lies and propaganda".