Iran’s Guardian Council has ruled out the possibility of annulling the disputed June 12 presidential election. A spokesperson for the Guardian Council said, “Fortunately, in the recent presidential election we found no witness of major fraud or breach in the election.” The decision came just one day after the Guardian Council acknowledged that the number of votes collected in fifty cities surpassed the number of people eligible to cast ballots in those areas. But the Council claimed the irregularities were not enough to overturn the landslide election margin that the government had announced for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iranian media reports Ahmadinejad will be sworn in within the next two months. On Monday, supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi held a small protest in Tehran, but it was quickly broken up by riot police who fired tear gas and live bullets in the air. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has threatened to crush further protests.