Iran election: partial recount agreed

Iran's Guardian Council is prepared to hold recounts in areas of the country where Friday's presidential election result was disputed by opposition candidates, according to reports coming out of Tehran today. This follows yesterday's massive protest march in the capital, during which at least seven supporters of the defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi are reported to have been killed, either by police or militiamen loyal to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Estimates put the size of the crowd, who gathered in defiance of a government ban, at between half a million and a million, making it the biggest public gathering in Tehran since the Shah was toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution. Many picked up the refrain of the weekend - "Death to the dictator!" - while others chanted: "Mousavi we support you! We will die but regain our votes".

Government helicopters circled overhead, while riot police and basiji militiamen rode motorcycles into the marchers, wielding sticks and pistols.

The official result of the election was 63 per cent for the hardline incumbent Ahmadinejad and 34 per cent for his reformist rival Mousavi.

Yesterday, the Guardian Council, a group of 12 senior clerics who administered the election, changed their tune under instructions from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and described the disputed poll as "provisional". This morning they apparently agreed to the partial recount - though no details were given as to the exact scope of the recount and how and when it would be conducted.

But whether this represents a weakening of official support for Ahmadinejad, or a ploy to buy time while protestors vent their anger, is not clear. Abbas Milani, director of Stanford University's Iranian studies programme, said of Khamenei's change of tack: "After congratulating the nation for having a sacred victory, to say now that there is a possibility that it was rigged is a big step backward for him."

But as the New York Times reports, "those sensing that important change may be afoot are quick to caution that Ayatollah Khamenei, as a student of the revolution that swept the Shah from power, could still resort to overwhelming force to crush the demonstrations".

The exact details of the deaths reported yesterday remain unclear. One person was killed when shots were fired at Mousavi's supporters by basiji as protesters marched towards Freedom Square.

Five students are believed to have died at Tehran University, killed by basiji early on Monday. Robert Fisk, reporting for the Independent, visited the campus soon after. "When I reached the gates of the college yesterday morning," he reported, "many students were weeping behind the iron fence of the campus, shouting 'massacre' and throwing a black cloth across the mesh. That was when the riot police returned and charged into the university grounds once more."

Monday came to an end with cars being torched and many protesters vowing to return to the streets on Tuesday. The Guardian reported a student saying: "Many of my friends are in prison. Iran is becoming a dictatorship. Ahmadinejad is denying the Holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was."

While many of the marchers were students and privileged young Iranians, Fisk reported seeing street workers and middle-aged women in full chador among the marchers.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYINGJohn Leyne, reporting from Tehran for the BBC: "The more I see this announcement about being willing to recount ballots, the more I think it is just a political ruse to try and wrong-foot the opposition. They have offered a recount, but they have not said who is going to carry it out... In any case, the opposition says there were so many other irregularities, that a recount alone would not satisfy them."Robert Fisk, the Independent: "Government is not about good guys and bad guys. It is about power, state and political power ­ they are not the same ­ and unless those wanly smiling riot police move across to the opposition, the weapons of the Islamic Republic remain in the hands of Ahmadinejad's administration and his spiritual protectors. As, no doubt, we shall soon see."

Ali M Ansari, director of the Institute for Iranian Studies, University of St Andrews, in the Times: "Few believed that the Supreme Leader, who had somewhat prematurely congratulated the President-elect on Saturday, would shift his position so quickly [by instructing the Guardian Council to investigate possible vote-rigging]. Yet it is testament to the tremendous pressures on the political system that have resulted from the outpouring of anger across the country, and the widespread belief that the political order is experiencing a serious crisis of authority."

Neil MacFarquhar, the New York Times: "Few suggest yet that Ayatollah Khamenei’s hold on power is at risk. But analysts say he has opened a serious fissure in the face of Islamic rule and one that may prove impossible to patch over, particularly given the fierce dispute over the election that has erupted amid the elite veterans of the 1979 revolution. Even his strong links to the powerful Revolutionary Guards - long his insurance policy - may not be decisive as the confrontation in Iran unfolds." ·