Fraud concerns ahead of Iranian vote

WASHINGTON, June 11 (UPI) -- Though Iranian elections are relatively democratic, the process of tallying the official vote count opens the system to manipulation, analysts say.

Iranians head to the polls Friday in a heated contest between incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, former military commander Mohsen Rezaei and former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi.

Despite public support for the vote, the convoluted political processes in Iran open the voting system to internal manipulation, an analysis by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy says.

The report points to past allegations that charity organizations have "rented" birth certificates, which Iranians use to verify eligibility, to rural voters, who make up the constituency for conservative leaders. Meanwhile, with loose requirements for polling stations, it is difficult to verify vote tallies against the number of voters in a given district.

Officials with the conservative Guardian Council and Interior Ministry, for their part, are charged with overseeing the elections in a two-step vetting process that leaves the clerically supported agencies with a tacit voice in the official vote count.

Challengers to Ahmadinejad raised a series of concerns to elections officials ahead of the vote. Though the actual vote process is largely fair, WINEP says the procedures "leave ample opportunity for massive voter fraud."