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Mojahedin's Command Headquarters inside Iran reported that about 5.5 million people, or 12.8%, of the eligible voters took part in the "Islamic councils'" elections across the country.
The figure announced by Mojahedin's Command HQ inside Iran is on the basis of on-site reports from thousands of polling stations throughout the country. Sources within the Interior Ministry and other official organs confirm this figure.
Other reports point to widespread rigging in polling stations in Tehran and other provinces. A large number of the regime's operatives voted several times. During the voting period, many boxes already stuffed with fraudulent ballots were brought into the polling stations.
In Tehran, the number of those who cast their ballots was less than 900,000, or 11.4% of the eligible voters.
The propaganda blitz by Khatami's faction is trying to portray the "Islamic councils'" elections as a milestone and a major victory. Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said: In this way, they are trying to compensate for Khatami's defeat in the Assembly of Experts elections, whitewash the recent political killings and overshadow the popular uprisings in different cities across the country.
Despite falsifying the figures and astronomical rigging, nothing has changed, nor will it change until the overthrow of the clerical regime.
The NCR President underscored that
in the power struggle and attacks and counter attacks, any advances or
retreats by the warring factions has no meaning other than further unraveling
of the clerical regime in its totality which engulfs it in a deadly contention.
UN Reports Continued Violation of Human Rights in Iran, Iran Zamin News Agency, February 28
In his report to the fifty-fifth session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Professor Copithorne, the Commission’s Special Representative on the situation of human rights in Iran, underscored that executions, torture, violations of the rights of women, religious and ethnic minorities are continuing in Iran. He said that "he has not been able to visit Iran since February 1996" and that "the Government has not issued an invitation to him."
Emphasizing that "many executions are not reported in the media," the Special Representative said "there were probably some 155 executions from January to mid-December 1998, of which 60 were said to have taken place in public." He added: "It is safe to say that torture has been practiced in Iran for a very long time." The report noted that despite "significant publicity about the importance of women," "little improvement in the condition of Iranian women" has been achieved. As regards the rights of religious minorities, the Special Representative enumerated cases of exerting pressure on them and stressed that: "The status of minorities continues to be an apparently forgotten one in the Government’s plan" and continues to suffer "neglect."
In reviewing the situation of courts in the clerical regime, the Special Representative expressed concern over the "sweeping" mandate of the "Cleric's Court" which "denies a defendant... a fair trial," and is used as "instrument of denial of human rights."
Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance
of Iran, stressed: "The emphasis laid by the Special Representative on
the persistence of human rights violations in all areas since Khatami took
office, again demonstrates that any expectation of change and reform in
the context of this religious dictatorship is absolutely futile."
Iran Slams U.S. Human Rights Report, Reuter, February 28
TEHRAN - Iran on Sunday angrily rejected a U.S. State Department report rating the country's human rights record as "poor" despite some recent improvements.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the report was designed to distract public opinion from human rights abuses in the United States, and showed Washington's continued hostility towards Iran.
Persisting problems in the country, where Shi'ite Moslem clergy hold most levers of power, include the disappearance and death of a number of prominent writers and secular dissidents late last year and the persecution of the minority Baha'i sect, the report said.
[The report also mentioned: "Investigations of the killing of political dissidents abroad continued during the year.
"The Istanbul Court of Appeal upheld the conviction of an Iranian national for complicity in the 1996 murder of Zahra Rajabi and Ali Moradi, who were both associated with the National Council of Resistance (NCR), an exile group that has claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks within Iran.
"The U.N. Special Representative reported that Italian security authorities continued their investigation into the 1993 killing in Rome of Mohammad Hossein Naghdi, the NCR's representative in Italy."]