Iranian Regime Admits Problems But Maintains Election Results

A strange admission, and even stranger is the comment that the results would have change anyway. My guess would be that the authorities are looking for an excuse and cover by telling people, yeah there were problems, but we won anyway so go home.

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's election authority has rejected claims of voting irregularities by a defeated presidential candidate, while acknowledging that the number of ballots cast in dozens of cities exceeded the number of eligible voters there, state-run TV reported Monday.

Iran's Guardian Council -- which approves all candidates running for office and verifies election results -- said candidate Mohsen Rezaie alleged irregularities in 170 cities, and that excessive ballots were found in 50 cities, according to government-funded Press TV.

Council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei said voting in those locations did not noticeably affect the outcome of the election, adding that the council will continue to investigate complaints that are filed through "legal channels," Press TV said. The council declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of the June 12 electionRezaie had reported some irregularities and called for a recount of some ballots, while opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi and candidate Mehdi Karrubi have rejected the election as fraudulent and demanded a new one.

We can hope for the people there but to be honest the government is playing the delaying fame hoping the outbreak of violence will fizzle, the opposition though has not given up:

The loser, Mir Hussein Moussavi, the moderate reform candidate who contends that the June 12 election was stolen from him, fired back at his accusers on Sunday night in a posting on his Web site, calling on his own supporters to demonstrate peacefully despite stern warnings from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that no protests of the vote would be allowed. “Protesting to lies and fraud is your right,” Mr. Moussavi said in a challenge to Ayatollah Khamenei’s authority.

The official result gave Mr. Ahmadinejad 63 percent of the ballot — an 11-million vote advantage — to Mr. Moussavi’s 34 percent.At a news conference Monday, Hassan Qashqavi, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, called the turnout — officially put at 85 percent, or 40 million voters — a “brilliant gem which is shining on the peak of dignity of the Iranian nation.”

Here is a clip of the crowd driving of the regimes para-military thugs: