International

Influential Iranian Cleric Calls for Clearing up Doubts over P-Vote

An influential Iranian cleric-politician Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has disparaged country’s leadership on one of most booming political stages, the Islamic prayer sermon. Giving a boost to the Opposition, and warning of a “crisis”, he has said that leadership must eliminate apprehensions prevailing over the disputed presidential vote.

In Rafsanjani’s sermon, first ever since elections, at the weekly prayers at Tehran University, tens of thousands of opposition supporters were present, chanting slogans in strength. In the front row was opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the June 12 election.

In his sermon broadcast live on radio nationwide, Rafsanjani reprimanded the clerical leadership for not listening to the controversy over the election, which was declared a victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in results that Mousavi’s supporters say were fraudulent.

“Doubt has been created (about the election results),” Rafsanjani said. “There is a large portion of the wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt.”

Rafsanjani couched his sermon in calls for unity in support of Iran’s Islamic Republic. But his sermon was an unmistakable – if implicit – challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has declared Ahmadinejad’s victory valid and demanded an end to questioning of the results.

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