Vote recount in Iran after rigging accusations

Between the election chicanery in Ohio last year, the madness in Ethiopia, and now this latest episode of election rigging in Iran, I'm really starting to wonder whether or not any country anywhere will ever be able to pull of an election. Then again, the French were perfectly capable sending the EU into disarray when they had the chance so maybe there's hope...sort of speak.

Here's the article:

Electoral authorities on Monday ordered a partial recount of Iran's inconclusive presidential election after reformists accused military organisations of rigging the vote in favour of a hardline candidate.

The recount comes four days before an unpredictable second round run-off between the top two candidates in Friday's poll -- pragmatic former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline mayor of Tehran.

Friday's run-off, forced after none of the original seven candidates won an absolute majority, is likely to have a major impact on Iran's relations with the world and the future of fragile reforms in the Islamic Republic.

Rafsanjani, 70, bidding to regain the post he held from 1989 to 1997, rebranded himself as a liberal for the campaign, saying the time was right to open a new chapter in Iran-U.S. ties and indicating he would increase social and political freedoms.

His surprise rival Ahmadinejad, 49, who would be Iran's first non-cleric president for 24 years, ran a far more modest campaign focusing on the need to tackle poverty and revive the ideals of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

But reformists, some of whom accuse state military organisations like the Basij militia of supporting Ahmadinejad, say he is part of an ultra-conservative totalitarian plan.

"If he wins (Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei will really rule everything," said Mohammad Reza Khatami, head of Iran's largest reform party. "We will not have free elections and opposition voices won't be tolerated," he told Reuters. (Read More)