DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, AND TEHRAN — After quickly finishing a partial vote count it said confirmed the initial tally of ballots, Iran's Guardian Council on Monday pronounced as valid President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's June 12 reelection, which opponents say was marred by massive vote fraud.
In its assessment, the conservative 12-member council appears to have simply ignored the vote-rigging allegations that led to massive street protests, including claims that ballots were taken before counting to military bases beyond the sight of election monitors.
"Since most of the complaints were not cases of vote-rigging or electoral violation or were minor violations that might happen in every election and can be ignored, the Guardian Council held numerous sessions and agreed that the complaints were not valid," wrote Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads the council, in a letter to the interior minister.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters, meanwhile, that five of the eight British Embassy employees arrested over the weekend in Tehran had been released but that three, all Iranian nationals, were still being interrogated.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London said Britain remained "deeply concerned" about the detained staff. "We must now see that the others are set free to resume their work," he said at a news conference.
Tensions remained high in the capital a day after an unauthorized demonstration drew thousands of presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi's supporters to the streets of northeastern Tehran. In downtown Tehran, pro-government Basiji militiamen armed with batons and shields lined up in preparation for potential protests. Al Arabiya television, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, reported that supporters of Mousavi and another contender, reformist Mehdi Karroubi, had tried to form a miles-long human chain along the main north-south road, Vali Asr Street.
A spokesman for Mousavi declined to comment on the Guardian Council's decision. A confidant of Karroubi said the central committee of his political party would decide on a course of action today.
Mousavi had previously rejected the partial recount as a ruse and continued to demand a nullification of the balloting, in which the government said he had garnered 34% of the vote compared with Ahmadinejad's 63%.
