AFP: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said he would release a collection of documents proving the extent of election law violations and smear campaigns that took place in the presidential vote. “Based on authentic evidence, I will reveal documents on unethical moves that took place in the presidential election,” the official IRNA agency quoted Khatami as saying as he visited a mosque late Wednesday.
AFP
TEHRAN – Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said he would release a collection of documents proving the extent of election law violations and smear campaigns that took place in the presidential vote.
“Based on authentic evidence, I will reveal documents on unethical moves that took place in the presidential election,” the official IRNA agency quoted Khatami as saying as he visited a mosque late Wednesday.
“In order to abide by the text of the covenant I have vowed with God and this nation and based on quite authentic documents, I have prepared a detailed dossier on violations of election laws before and during the voting,” he said.
Khatami, who will hand over to election winner Mahmood Ahmadinejad in early August, said he would give the documents to the president-elect, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the head of the judiciary.
Allegations of smear campaigns cast a shadow over the election and even the hardline Guardians Council acknowledged “irregularities in election propaganda”, although this did not put the validity of the vote in doubt.
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the regime veteran who was thrashed by Ahmadinejad in last week’s presidential run-off vote, made bitter allegations of an orchestrated multi-million dollar smear campaign against him and his family.
Ahmadinejad’s team also complained that their candidate was the target of unsubstantiated allegations he was a dangerous extremist bent on rolling back reform and closing down the stock market.
Khatami said that any such violations would be all the more worrying if they were conducted with the political and financial backing of “a state organ commissioned to safeguard values.”
The president did not specify which institution he was referring to, but Rafsanjani and two other beaten candidates from the first round have all alleged that the Guardians Council, Basij militia and Revolutionary Guards were involved in violations.
“If this phenomenon has been conducted with the backing of secret and semi-secret bands embedded in the society then we would be right to seriously worry about the foundations of society,” Khatami added.
