Articles and photos: "Speed of Iran vote count called suspicious; 300,000 Mousavi supporters take to the streets in protest"
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Tens of thousands of supporters of pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi stream through the center of Tehran in a boisterous protest against election results that declared President Mamoud Ahmadinejad the winner. The crowd — many wearing the trademark green color of Mousavi's campaign — was headed toward the capital's huge Freedom Square in the largest display of opposition unity since Friday's elections ended with Mousavi claiming widespread fraud.
(AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
CAIRO – How do you count almost 40 million handwritten paper ballots in a matter of hours and declare a winner? That's a key question in Iran's disputed presidential election. International polling experts and Iran analysts said the speed of the vote count, coupled with a lack of detailed election data normally released by officials, was fueling suspicion around President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide victory.
Iran's supreme leader endorsed the hard-line president's re-election the morning after Friday's vote, calling it a "divine assessment" and appearing to close the door on challenges from Iran's reformist camp. But on Monday, after two days of rioting in the streets, he ordered an investigation into the allegations of fraud.
Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad's reformist challenger, claims he was robbed of the presidency and has called for the results to be canceled.
Mousavi's newspaper, Kalemeh Sabz, or the Green Word, reported on its Web site that more than 10 million votes were missing national identification numbers similar to U.S. Social Security numbers, which make the votes "untraceable." It did not say how it knew that information.
Mousavi said some polling stations closed early with voters still in line, and he charged that representatives of his campaign were expelled from polling centers even though each candidate was allowed one observer at each location. He has not provided evidence to support the accusations.
His supporters have reported intimidation by security forces who maintained a strong presence around polling stations.
Observers who questioned the vote said that at each stage of the counting, results released by the Interior Ministry showed Ahmadinejad ahead of Mousavi by about a 2-1 margin.
That could be unusual, polling experts noted, because results reported first from Iran's cities would likely reflect a different ratio from those reported later from the countryside, where the populist Ahmadinejad has more support among the poor.
Mousavi said the results also may have been affected by a shortage of ballot papers in the provinces of Fars and East Azerbaijan, where he had been expected to do well because he is among the country's Azeri minority. He said the shortage was despite the fact that officials had 17 million extra ballots ready.
Interior Ministry results show that Ahmadinejad won in East Azerbaijan.
The final tally was 62.6 percent of the vote for Ahmadinejad and 33.75 for Mousavi — a landslide victory in a race that was perceived to be much closer. Such a huge margin also went against the expectation that a high turnout — a record 85 percent of Iran's 46.2 million eligible voters — would boost Mousavi, whose campaign energized young people to vote. About a third of the eligible voters were under 30.
Ahmadinejad, who has significant support among the poor and in the countryside, said Sunday that the vote was "real and free" and insisted the results were fair and legitimate.
"Personally, I think that it is entirely possible that Ahmadinejad received more than 50 percent of the vote," said Konstantin Kosten, an expert on Iran with the Berlin-based German Council of Foreign Relations who spent a year from 2005-06 in Iran.
Still, he said, "there must be an examination of the allegations of irregularities, as the German government has called for."
But Iran's electoral system lacks the transparency needed to ensure a fair election, observers said. International monitors are barred from observing Iranian elections and there are no clear mechanisms to accredit domestic observers, said Michael Meyer-Resende, coordinator of the Berlin-based Democracy Reporting International, which tracked developments in the Iranian vote from outside the country.
He noted that the election was organized and overseen by two institutions that are not independent, the government's Interior Ministry and the Guardian Council, a 12-member body made up of clerics and experts in Islamic law who are closely allied to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Meyer-Resende said that to be sure of the results announced by the Interior Ministry, it must release data all the way down to the level of each polling station.
One of the central questions was how 39.2 million paper ballots could be counted by hand and final results announced by authorities in Tehran in just over 12 hours. Past elections took at least twice as long.
A new computerized system might have helped speed the process in urban centers, where most Iranians live, though it is unclear if that system was extended to every small town and village. And each ballot — on which a candidate's name was written in — would still have to be counted by hand before any data could be entered into a computer, aggregated and transmitted to the Interior Ministry in Tehran.
"I wouldn't say it's completely impossible," Meyer-Resende said. "In the case of Iran, of course, you wonder with logistical challenges whether they could do it so fast."
Susan Hyde, an assistant political science professor at Yale University who has taken part in election monitoring missions in developing countries for the Carter Center, agreed that would be uncharacteristically fast.
"If they're still using hand counting, that would be very speedy, unusually speedy," she said.
The Interior Ministry released results from a first batch of 5 million votes just an hour and a half after polling stations closed.
Over the next four hours, it released vote totals almost hourly in huge chunks of about 5 million votes — plowing through more than half of all ballots cast.
Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, a professor of Middle East politics at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, said a major rigging process would require the involvement of powerful advisory bodies, including those in which one of the other candidates and a key Mousavi backer are prominent figures.
"Given that Mohsen Rezaei, one of the other presidential candidates, is the head of the powerful Expediency Council, for instance, it is highly unlikely that he wouldn't have received any information of such a strategic plan to hijack the election," Adib-Moghaddam said.
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One dead and several injured during protests
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Obama says he is 'deeply troubled by the violence'
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World watches on the internet as Iranian voters reject poll results
Yesterday one person was killed and several seriously wounded after hundreds of thousands of Iranians defied the threat and took to the streets of Tehran to demand a new vote.
Gunmen loyal to the president fired on crowds after their building was attacked by demonstrators who had ignored a ban on rallies.
The body of a man is carried through the streets after he was allegedly shot by pro-government militia during the protest rally
Mir Hossein Mousavi addresses hundreds of thousands of supporters yesterday
An Associated Press photographer said he saw one person shot and killed and several others who appeared to be seriously wounded after gunmen mounted the roof of their compound and sprayed bullets onto protestors trying to break in
Some reports put the death toll higher, but they could not be confirmed.
The dead man, wearing a white shirt and khaki pants, lay sprawled on the sidewalk with blood from a head wound spilling onto the pavement.
Nearby, protesters carried another gunshot victim, a makeshift tourniquet around his thigh, onto the back of a yellow taxi.
The shooting sparked panic among the supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi who had massed in the city for a third day of protests over an election they claim was rigged in Mr Ahmadinejad's favour.
Furious men showed their bloody palms after cradling the dead and wounded who had been part of a crowd that stretched more than five miles supporting reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.
In his first public comment on the Iranian election, President Barack Obama said he was 'deeply troubled by the violence I've been seeing on TV.'
A bleeding protester is helped by a friend after he was injured by gunfire outside pro-government militia compound
A man lies injured on the back of a taxi, after pro-government militia fired shots in the air during protests by opposition supporters
Although he said he had no way of knowing whether the election was valid, Obama praised protesters and Iranian youth who questioned the results.
'The world is watching and is inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was,' he said.
Last night lines of protesters held aloft green flags - Mr Mousavi's campaign colours - and photographs of him across the city from Azadi, or Freedom, Square.
Some estimates put the numbers at least at 300,000 in the biggest demonstration in the Islamic republic's 30-year history.
In the hours before the bursts of shooting, there had been wild cheers and chants of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) as Mr Mousavi stood on the roof of a car to tell the crowd: ' The vote of the people is more important than Mousavi or any other person.'
His wife, Zahra Rahnavard, said protests over the election result would continue. 'We will stand until the end,' she insisted.
As riot police with sticks looked on, one man shouted: 'We fight, we die, we will not accept this vote rigging.' 
Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters near the iconic Freedom monument in Tehran
River of protest: Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi mass in Tehran yesterday bearing the his green campaign colours
It was Mr Mousavi's first public appearance since the polls closed, and he launched his claims that the vote was rigged to re-elect the hard-line president.
In an extremely rare nod to anti-government protests, brief clips of the march were shown on state television.
It appeared that Iran's ruling clerics had opened the door for the demonstration - even giving it news coverage - in a possible bid to avoid more street clashes and seek some breathing room in the growing confrontation.
Mousavi had paused on the edge of the square - where Ahmadinejad made his first post-election speech - to address the throng. They roared to him: 'Long live Mousavi.'
'This is not election. This is selection,' read one English-language placard at the demonstration. Other marchers held signs proclaiming 'We want our vote!' and raised their fingers in a V-for-victory salute.
''We want our president, not the one who was forced on us,' said 28-year-old Sara, who gave only her first name for fear of reprisal from authorities.
Mr Ahmadinejad had been returned to power with 63 per cent of the vote.
A fire burns last night at a Basij militia base after the rally
However, statistics circulating on Iranian blogs and websites claimed Mr Mousavi had in fact won 19.1million votes while Mr Ahmadinejad came third with 5.7million.
State television said yesterday that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had urged the Guardian Council - the country's powerful clerical group - to 'precisely consider' the complaints of vote-rigging.
The 12-man council said it would rule within ten days.
The day after the election, Khamenei had urged the nation to unite behind Mr Ahmadinejad and called the result a 'divine assessment.'
Other world leaders demanded clarification of the poll. Gordon Brown said there 'were serious questions' and told MPs: 'The way the regime responds to legitimate protests will have implications for Iran's relationship with the rest of the world.'
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the election had shown 'signs of irregularities'.
In Paris, the Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to discuss the allegations of vote-tampering and the violence.
Protests also spread across the country. Witnesses said that pro-Mousavi demonstrators clashed with police in the historic city of Esfahan and the northeastern city of Mashhad, a conservative bastion with one of Iran's most holy Shiite shrines.
Attempts by the government to control news of the dramatic events of the past few days has triggered massive coverage across the internet.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shown left just before voting on Friday, has ordered an investigation into allegations of voter fraud - potentially calling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory into doubt
Authorities have blocked pro-Mousavi Web sites and text messaging, but word of the rally was passed by e-mails, phone calls and word of mouth.
At nightfall, Ahmadinejad opponents again shouted their denunciations from Tehran's rooftops.
Cries of 'Death to the dictator!' echoed across the capital for a second night.
The tactic is deeply symbolic and borrowed from the Islamic Revolution - the rooftop cries were how Khomeini asked Iran to show its unity against the Western-backed shah 30 years earlier.
Many Iranians are now using social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, and blogs to communicate to the outside world and are posting video footage of the violent clashes.
Opposition supporters have been using the web to bypass state-controlled media outlets and communicate with each other directly.
Tweets from 'Change for Iran' were among many offering real time updates. The blogger wrote: 'my friend saying more than 100 students arrested, I can't confirm this but the numbers are high. bastards just attacked us for no reason, I lost count of how much tear gas they launched at us! ...we have now some students with urgent need of medical attention I'm calling out to all ppl who can come here don't leave us.'
Another site 'Iran. Where is my vote?' on Facebook, features short updates from Tehran as well as links to videos and opinion about the election results.
Meanwhile, independent news organisation TehranBuruea on Twitter has been forced to change servers, to avoid being shut down by the government.
A demonstrator runs down the side of the freedom monument after climbing with others to spray-paint a graffiti slogan in Farsi reading 'Salute to Mousavi, Down with the dictator, Mousavi'
In the streets: Protests by these young Iranian supporters of Mousavi mirror that on the web, such as Facebook site Iran. Where's my vote?
The site had been posting graphic accounts of events, such as this from one user: 'i kept screaming Leave me alone. they opened my bag and one of the guys saw my camera.
'70 motorcycles! They were in strange clothes and had a 'red gun'! they cornered me suddenly.'
Other Iranians said they had been 'beaten to the verge of death', while foreign journalists were being kicked out.
In one donklephant.com, a video was posted of protesters chasing police away so the BBC could continue filming.
Dramatic images of demonstrators were also posted on photoblog Tehranlive.org and updated hourly.
Meanwhile multimedia sites such as buzzfeed.com and reddit have been feeding information on Iran to the rest of the world.
Protests go online: Iran. Where's my vote? on Facebook. allows users to link to videos and opinion about the Iranian election results
Free speech: TehranBureau on Twitter has been providing the world with graphic updates of protests in Iran
Even Mousavi has been able to speak to his followers via the web.
In a telephone plea, he was quoted on andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com as saying: 'I am under extreme pressure to accept the results of the sham election. They have cut me off from any communication with people and am under surveillance. I ask the people to stay in the streets but avoid violence.'
Commentators say it is remarkable that social networking tools conceived by young Americans just a few short years ago in dorm rooms and basements, are now been used half-way across the world in Iran.
Last night's bloody protests marked the third day of clashes since the election result - the worst unrest in Tehran in a decade.
Protesters set fires and battled anti-riot police, including a clash early on Monday at Tehran University after 3,000 students gathered to oppose the election results.
More than 100 of Mr Mousavi’s supporters were rounded up by the police on Sunday. Scores of young people shouted ‘Death to the dictator!’ and broke the windows of city buses on several streets in central Tehran.
Protesters attack a building of pro-government militia last night
They burned banks and set fire to rubbish bins and piles of tyres, using them as flaming barricades to block police.
Black-clad riot police beat some of the protesters with batons. Shops, government offices and businesses closed early as tension mounted.
Mr Mousavi also called on his supporters to continue their protests and there were rumours that he would call for a general strike.
The regime blocked access to social websites such as Facebook and Twitter, along with the mobile phone network. These have been used by opponents of Mr Ahmadinejad to organise protests, leading their campaign to be dubbed ‘the Facebook revolution’.
Among those briefly arrested over the weekend was veteran BBC journalist John Simpson, who was filming in Tehran. 
Silent rally: Supporters carry a banner of Mousavi through the streets
In his post-election speech, Mr Ahmadinejad had dismissed the initial unrest as ‘not important’ and compared it to scenes witnessed after a football match.
‘The margin between my votes and the others is too much and no one can question it,’ he said.
Accusing foreign media of launching a ‘psychological war’ against Iran, he added: ‘In Iran, the election was a real and free one. The election will improve the nation’s power and its future.’
He has ordered some foreign journalists to leave.
Reports of vote-rigging are so far based on nothing more than circumstantial evidence but questions are being asked why Mr Ahmadinejad’s victory was announced within two hours of Friday’s vote rather than after the customary three days. 
Confrontation: A woman protests at Iranian security forces as they beat a Mousavi supporter at the weekend
The president is also said to have won in cities where he was thought to be most vulnerable, including the home town of Mr Mousavi, and there are claims that some ballots are missing.
Yet tens of thousands marched in support of Mr Ahmadinejad in Tehran over the weekend, waving Iranian flags and shouting his name, before he addressed them at a rally.
International reaction has been muted. Britain voiced concern about the impact of events in Iran on any possible international engagement with its government.
The European Union plans to demand clarification of Mr Ahmadinejad's victory and voice concern at the treatment of his opponents, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said after talks in Luxembourg with EU counterparts.
Ahmadinejad supporters wave Iranian and religious flags during a victory celebration in central Tehran yesterday
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