TEHRAN — Hundreds of thousands of Iranian protesters defied authorities Monday and marched to Tehran's Freedom Square, as the Islamic Republic's supreme leader ordered an investigation into allegations of vote fraud, a move the opposition described as little more than an attempt to dampen anger over the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the Guardian Council, which is filled with his own appointees and led by a hard-line cleric close to Ahmadinejad, to examine challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi's claims of vote fraud. Khamenei's order came hours before the march, amid a days-long buildup of tension.
Days after Khamenei blessed the election of Ahmadinejad and urged Iranians to rally behind the president, the spokesman of the Guardian Council urged Mousavi's supporters to wait for the "final results" of Friday's election until after the fraud investigation, which will begin today.
"My request to the dear candidates and their supporters, who are trying to voice their objections while respecting the law and ethics, is to bear with us," council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodai said in a live round-table discussion on television Monday night. "We will investigate and announce the result. The final result will be the one announced by the Guardian Council, which everyone should hopefully accept."
His call for patience came as gunfire from a pro-government militia base adjacent to the demonstration killed one person and injured others, news agencies reported. State radio announced today that seven people were killed after trying to "attack a military site," in reference to a clash between semiofficial pro-government militiamen and protesters after the demonstration.
The crowd -- estimates of which ranged to more than 1 million -- defied Interior Ministry warnings broadcast on state television and radio that anyone showing up would be beaten or worse, and even ignored Mousavi's last-minute call to cancel the event.
The protesters found out about the rally despite a media clampdown that brought the shuttering of numerous opposition websites, including those linked to Mousavi, the jamming of satellite news channels and the shutdown of text messaging systems.
In an attempt to help keep information flowing, a Twitter co-founder wrote in a blog Monday that the company had delayed an important maintenance operation.
