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In order to conceal the nationwide boycott of the "Islamic Councils'" elections, the clerical regime resorted to widespread rigging in various cities and villages, including Tehran and the provinces of Isfahan, Lorestan, East Azerbaijan, Golestan, Khuzistan, Khorassan, Sistan and Baluchistan, Hormuzgan, central, Kurdistan, etc., reports from Iran say.
According to a confidential report by the Ministry of the Interior, rigging was most widespread in Tehran as the Ministry received thousands of complaints.
Many ballot boxes had already been
stuffed with ballots. A thorough appraisal by Mojahedin's Command Headquarters
inside Iran indicate that the number of voters in Tehran did not exceed
900,000, or only 11.4% of the eligible voters.
Mullahs Admit Two-Thirds Did Not Vote in Fars Province, Iran Zamin News Agency, March 2
On Sunday, Tehran radio reported that the vote count in the southern Fars province had ended and that the 962,753 votes cast in the province were the highest among all provinces in the country.
In this way, despite all the rigging and exaggeration of the vote tally, the clerical regime could announce the election turn out as only one-third of the 2,700,000 eligible voters in that province.
The announced figure is about 170,000
votes less than the total reported by the regime during the Assembly of
Experts elections in that province.
Decisive Censure of Mullahs Demanded, Iran Zamin News Agency, March 2
On the eve of the fifty-fifth session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Mohammad Mohaddessin, NCR's Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, sent a letter to EU foreign ministers, demanding the adoption of a strongly-worded resolution by the Commission, condemning the flagrant violations of human rights in Iran.
Citing the report by the UN Human Rights
Commission's Special Representative about the situation of human rights
in Iran, Mr. Mohaddessin wrote: "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. As
the highest executive in the country, Khatami, like other leaders of this
regime, must be held accountable for these crimes.
Rajavi Asks Pope Cancel His Meeting With Khatami, Iran Zamin News Agency, March 2
A delegation from the National Council of Resistance of Iran, headed by Ms. Mitra Bagheri, NCR's representative in Italy, presented to the Ambassador of the Vatican in Rome the letter by NCR's President Massoud Rajavi addressed to His Holiness Pope John Paul II.
In his letter, Mr. Rajavi asked His Holiness not to receive Mohammad Khatami, the clerical regime's criminal president, in view of the mullahs' disregard for internationally recognized human rights principles and 43 resolutions of condemnation by different organs of the United Nations.
The NCR President enclosed with his
letter, the list of names and particulars of 3,208 prisoners out of 30,000
political prisoners massacred by the Iranian regime in 1988. The list was
submitted to the Vatican.
U.S. Examines Iran Energy Deal, Associated Press, March 2
WASHINGTON - The State Department criticized French and Italian oil companies on Tuesday for signing a $540 million energy deal with Iran and said U.S. authorities would begin proceedings that could lead to economic penalties against the firms.
Elf Aquitaine of France and Agip of Italy signed a deal Monday that would boost Iranian oil production to an estimated 100,000 barrels a day.
The United States tries to discourage investment in Iran on the grounds Iran sponsors terrorism beyond its borders, spreads dangerous technology and is bent on developing weapons of mass destruction.
[In a statement issued by the NCR, the Iranian Resistance strongly condemned this contract. It said: "Considering it contrary to the highest interests of the Iranian people, the Iranian Resistance demands the cancellation of this contract.
["As far as the Iranian people are concerned, these contracts, which only serve to prolong the reign of the ruling religious, terrorist dictatorship, are not at all acceptable," the statement said.]