Advertisement
Babylon & Beyond

IRAN: Box-by-box ballot count to be announced

By Jeffrey FleishmanStaff Writer 
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Following the revelation of 3 million questionable ballots and charges of vote rigging, Iranian authorities say they will take the unusual step of releasing “box-by-box details” of the June 12 elections, according to state-owned Press TV.

‘During previous elections in the Islamic Republic, statistics concerning individual ballot boxes were considered confidential information … this kind of information was only available to certain officials,’ deputy head of the Interior Ministry’s election headquarters Ali-Asghar Sharifi-Rad is quoted as saying on Press TV’s website.

Advertisement

According to Sharifi-Rad, the ministry had, however, decided to publish the results ‘box by box,’ to resolve ambiguities about the disputed election in which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a landslide victory, the website reported.

The Guardian Council, which oversees elections, announced late Monday that it would not annul the outcome as requested by opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who claims fraud.

“If a major breach occurs in an election, the Guardian Council may annul the votes that come out of a particular affected ballot box, polling station, district, or city like how it was done in the parliamentary elections,’ a council spokesman said. ‘Fortunately, in the recent presidential election we found no witness of major fraud or breach in the election. Therefore, there is no possibility of an annulment taking place.”

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Babylon & Beyond
Jeffrey Fleishman

Jeffrey Fleishman is a senior writer at the Los Angeles Times. Previously, he was the foreign and national editor. A 2002 Nieman fellow at Harvard University, Fleishman was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing. A longtime foreign correspondent, he served as bureau chief for The Times in Cairo and Berlin, and was previously based in Rome for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also was a writer on film, art and culture. Fleishman has been a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and a finalist for the Center for Public Integrity’s Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. He is the author of five novels, including “Good Night, Forever” and “Last Dance.”

Advertisement