20000311

Iran stops vote recount, results unchanged

TEHRAN: A top election body in Iran on Thursday halted a partial recount of ballots from last month's parliamentary polls in Tehran, saying there would be no change in results which gave reformists a big victory.

"After recounting more than 500 ballot boxes, it has become clear that the recount will not change any results. The recount was therefore stopped," the election body said in a statement read on state television.

It said it had asked the Guardian Council, a clergy-based body overseeing the elections, to make a final ruling on the validity of the polls which gave allies of President Mohammad Khatami 29 of the capital's 30 seats in the 290-seat parliament.

Election officials had ordered the recount of some 1,000 ballot boxes, or about one-third of votes cast in the capital.

The recount came after delays in releasing final results fuelled speculation that votes were manipulated to ensure a seat for former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who headed the conservative and centrist tickets.

Rafsanjani, a veteran revolutionary aiming to be parliamentary speaker, had won the final Tehran seat by a narrow margin in a contest otherwise dominated by reformers.

Reformers say Khatami's landslide election in 1997 and his allies' clear victory in the parliamentary election give them a strong mandate for liberal, social and political reforms.

But conservatives want strict limits on freedom and pluralism, voicing concern that Islamic and revolutionary values may be watered down.

Run-offs are to be held in a few weeks in districts where candidates could not get the required minimum of 25 percent of all votes cast, or where results were annulled because of alleged irregularities. The new parliament is due to meet in May.-Reuters