1. The rigging has been so extensive that even officials running the election farce have voiced their complaints. Saeed Saghafi, in charge of the Election Oversight Committee in Tehran's 16th district, wrote in a letter to the head of the districts' affairs: "There were numerous cases of election violations in ballot boxes in mosques and schools, favoring a certain faction. There were reports of using fake birth certificates and identity cards, copying the names of the desired candidates and posting them at polling stations and advertising for a certain faction."
The letter added: "Among the various parties, the Islamic Iran Participation Front had the highest number of violations."
2. In many of Tehran's central regions, the number of polling stations were reduced to create artificial crowding. Salamati, the head of the Election Oversight Committee in one of the capital's 22 districts, stated that the number of polling stations in his district were reduced from 200 to 118. This was a bid to create crowded polling stations in downtown Tehran which foreign journalists were expected to visit.
3. Intense clashes and scuffles broke out over the riggings among rival factions. In Shahriar region, west of the capital, a candidate named Kouzehgar clashed with election monitors from a rival faction who caught him cheating. The windshield of his car was shattered in the brawl.
The clerical regime's wildly exaggerated turnout figures have been questioned even by some pro-Khatami candidates. Meisam Saeedi, an IIPF candidate in Tehran, told a Tehran daily: "The turnout did not match that in the May 23 presidential elections." Elahe Koulaii, another IIPF candidate, told the same newspaper: "On the basis of what I saw, I think the turnout was less than the May 23 presidential elections. This might perhaps be due to the president not responding to the expectations of the public" (Arya daily, February 19).
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 20, 2000
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