Mousavi renews call to revoke election result

TEHRAN: Defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi renewed on Saturday his call to cancel the result of last week's disputed election, his campaign website said. In a letter to electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, Mousavi said: "All these counts of irregularities plus many others that were mentioned in previous letters ... are reasons to cancel the election nationwide." The letter was released on his campaign website, Ghalam News. Mousavi cited several "irregularities" that were committed in the election, the letter said. Some of them were "sealing of ballot boxes before the voting in most polling stations, shortage of ballot papers and limited voting time," the letter said. His latest protest comes a day after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled out fraud in the poll which saw incumbent hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emerging victorious. Siding with Ahmadinejad in his first public appearance since the vote, Khamenei said: "The people have chosen whom they wanted." Khamenei said there could be no doubting Ahmadinejad's re-election. "The legal mechanisms in our country do not allow cheating. How can one cheat with a margin of 11 million votes?" he asked. Mousavi has repeatedly demanded a re-run of the poll, denouncing the election as a "shameful fraud."