457 Protestors Arrested Even Though Iran Confesses Poll Discrepancies
As many as 457 people have been arrested in connection with post-poll violence that spread out in Tehran on Saturday in spite of the warnings against illegal gatherings, reported a local English language Press TV. In the meanwhile, authorities admitted discrepancies in poll in 50 cities.
“Iran’s police arrested 457 people who have caused insecurity, disrupted public order and clashed with police around Tehran’s Enqelab square on Saturday,” the police said in a statement.
The statement also said that the vandals who have been arrested broke windows of banks and shops and caused trouble for the people and that armed militants set ablaze a mosque and two gas stations and a military post were assaulted.
The police have been successful in restoring security in the main streets of Tehran, with peace returning to the capital, claimed the statement.
It should be noted that in Saturday’s clashed between Iranian police and “terrorist groups”, at least 13 people were killed.
In protests following disputed presidential vote, Iran’s police on Saturday used tear gas and water canons to disperse demonstrators at a main square of Tehran.
On June 13, Iran’s Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli said incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won 62.63 percent of the total ballots on June 12, while his main rival Mir-Hossein Mousavigot 33.75 percent.
After the official declaration, Mousavi protested “strongly” the “obvious violations” in Iran’s presidential election. He also appealed to the Guardian Council for the cancellation of the election results.
Mousavi’s supporters have participated in massive rallies in Tehran and other cities over the past days.
In the meantime, the authorities acknowledged that the number of votes cast in 50 cities exceeded the actual number of voters.
However, they said that discrepancies, influencing as many as three million votes, did not infringe Iranian law. Besides, the influential Guardian Council said that it was not clear whether the discrepancies would decisively change the election result.
Hassan Qashqavi, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, termed the turn out – officially put at 85 percent, or 40 million voters – as a “brilliant gem which is shining on the peak of dignity of the Iranian nation.”
He, at a press conference, blamed unnamed western powers and news organizations, which are functioning under extremely tight official restrictions, for spreading undesirable “anarchy and vandalism” and said that the outcome of the election would not be changed.
“We will not allow western media to turn this gem into a worthless stone,” he said.
Qashqavi drew comparisons with American election results.
“No one encouraged the American people to stage a riot” because they disagreed with the re-election of George W Bush, he said. Quoted by Press TV, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for the authoritative Guardian Council – a 12-member panel of clerics charged with certifying the vote – denied claims by another losing candidate, Mohsen Rezai, that irregularities had occurred in up to 170 voting districts.
