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TV: Iran's 10% ballot boxes to be recounted

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-20 21:09

Tehran - Iran's Guardian Council is ready to recount up to 10 percent of the ballot boxes randomly in last week's presidential election, state television reported on Saturday.

"The Guardian Council is ready to recount randomly up to 10 percent of ballot boxes in last week's disputed presidential election," the council's spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodai was quoted as saying.

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"The Guardian Council is not legally obliged," Kadkhodai said, "we will recount the votes in the presence of the three (defeated) candidates."

Whenever the examination and the recount is finished the council will announce its final decision, he added.

He also said that Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi still have time to express their opinions until Wednesday.

Only Iran's former Revolutionary Guards Chief Mohsen Rezaei attended a special meeting of the Guardians Council with presidential candidates on Saturday, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran's former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi failed to attend the meeting without giving any reason.

The Spokesman of the Guardian Council Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei said on Wednesday that candidates of Iran's recent presidential election were invited to its upcoming meeting session which is to be held within the next few days.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has ordered Iran's Guardian Council, the top legislative body, to investigate the claims of "fraud" in the recent presidential election.