Statement No. 11
Widespread election rigging in Tehran, Khorassan, Khuzistan and other provinces
-Only 11% of eligible voters went to the polls in Tehran

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.

In the northeastern Khorassan province, in a number of the villages near the provincial capital, Mashhad, the vote tally exceeded the population of the villages. At polling stations in Mashhad and Taybad, supporters of feuding factions changed clothes or birth certificates and voted several times. One polling station was located in the campaign headquarters of one candidate, where supporters of other candidates were turned away.

In the city of Jajarm, in Khorassan province, where residents completely boycotted the election farce, the election supervisory board fears presenting its report, because they had been arrested in the days before the election by the State Security Force.

In the western Lorestan province, in the afternoon, local officials replaced many of the empty ballot boxes, with identical boxes that had been already stuffed with ballets.

In the southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province, in violation of election regulations, candidates had gone to the polling stations and were making promises to the people to secure their votes. Many of the regimeÕs operatives voted several times with different birth certificates and documents such as ration cards, driver's license and even without presenting any documents.

In many villages in the southern Hormuzgan province, villagers were transferred to other villages to vote and many were paid by the candidates for their votes.

A report by the Revolutionary Guards Corps operational directorate in East Azerbaijan province said that in at least six polling stations, candidatesÕ representatives filed many complaints about voting irregularities. The night before the elections, leaflets had been distributed, urging the public not to vote and to disrupt the election sham.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 1, 1999

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