Tehran, June 13: Anti-riot police guarded the offices overseeing Iran’s disputed elections on Saturday with the count pointing to a landslide victory by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while his opponent denounced the results as “treason” and threatened a challenge.
The standoff left Tehran in tense anticipation. Many people opened shops and carried out errands, but the backdrop was far from normal: black-clad police gathering around key government buildings and mobile phone text messaging blocked in an apparent attempt to stifle one of the main communication tools of the pro-reform movement of Mir Hossein Mousavi.
A statement from Mousavi posted on his Web site urged his supporters to resist a “governance of lie and dictatorship.”
Outside the Interior Ministry, which directed Friday’s voting, security forces set up a cordon. The results had flowed quickly after polls closed showing the hard-line President with a comfortable lead — defying expectations of a nail-biter showdown following a month of fierce campaigning and bringing immediate charges of vote rigging by Mousavi.
But an expected announcement on the full outcome was temporarily put on hold. A reason for the delay was not made public, but it suggested intervention by Iran’s Islamic authorities seeking to put the brakes on a potentially volatile showdown.
Ahmadinejad had the apparent backing of the ruling theocracy, which holds near-total power and would have the ability to put the election results into a temporary limbo.
There were no immediate reports of serious clashes or mass protests, and the next step by Mousavi’s backers were unclear. Mousavi, who became the hero of a powerful youth-driven movement, had not made a public address or issued messages since declaring himself the true victor moments after polls closed and accusing authorities of “manipulating” the vote.
“I’m warning that I won’t surrender to this manipulation,” said the Mousavi statement on the Web on Saturday. “The outcome of what we’ve seen from the performance of officials … is nothing but shaking the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran sacred system and governance of lie and dictatorship.”
He warned “people won’t respect those who take power through fraud” and called the decision to announce Ahmadinejad winner of the elction was a “treason to the votes of the people.”
The headline on one of Mousavi’s Web sites: “I wont give in to this dangerous manipulation.” Mousavi and key aides could not be reached by phone.
It was even unclear how many Iranians were even aware of Mousavi’s claims of fraud. Communications disruptions began in the later hours of voting Friday — suggesting an information clampdown. State television and radio only broadcast the Interior Ministry’s vote count and not Mousavi’s midnight press conference.
Nationwide, the text messaging system remained down Saturday and several pro-Mousavi Web sites were blocked or difficult to access. Text messaging is frequently used by many Iranians — especially young Mousavi supporters — to spread election news.
–Agencies–