Iran's powerful Guardian Council on Monday formally certified incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the June 12 presidential election, whose results have been contested by forces supporting moderate reform candidates former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and former Iranian Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi.
After a random recount of 10 percents of the ballot boxes in Tehran and some provinces, the council concluded that election irregularities were not large enough to nullify the results. This is the final decision and there will be no new presidential election.
The initial announcement that Mr. Ahmadinejad garnered some 25 million votes against Mr. Mousavi's some 13 million votes touched off daily mass protest demonstrations by Mr. Mousavi's supporters because of pre-election forecasts that the race would be neck and neck. Crackdowns by security authorities led to more than 20 deaths and reduced the turnouts for demonstrations. More than 650 people are reported to have been detained.
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