The situation in Iran is tense as security forces have clashed with protesters over the June 12 election whose results — announced within two hours after the polls closed — gave incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the win over Mr. Mir Hossein Mousavi, the moderate reform candidate.
Despite a pre-election prediction that it would be a neck-and-neck race, the announced results indicated a landslide victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad — about 63 percent of the vote from some 40 million people said to have cast paper ballots, to Mr. Mousavi's 34 percent. This has triggered mass protest demonstrations by supporters of Mr. Mousavi, who has called for a new election, claiming that the president stole the election. The demonstrations have resulted in some 500 arrests. More than 10 people are reported to have died with hundreds injured.
In light of the the Guardian Council's admission that the number of votes recorded in 50 cities amounted to 3 million more than the number of eligible voters, a new election should be the best way to dispel suspicions about the election results and calm the situation. But the council has turned down complaints that the election was invalid, saying that whatever irregularities existed were not serious enough to change the outcome of the election. This attitude will make it difficult to solve the current turmoil through legal procedures.