Student militia eyed on Iranian vote

WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) -- With unprecedented numbers of Iranians voting in the Friday presidential contest, the role of the military establishment may corrupt the tally, a study shows.

Iranians lined up hours before official voting began at 8 a.m. local time to pick their next president in what has come down to a race between incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a reformer, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Though the clerical regime in Tehran lauds its political process as a sign of a thriving democracy, the tallying process has come under criticism from a variety of observers.

In the latest, the National Democratic Institute, a monitoring group founded by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, raises concerns that the Basij, a student militia controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp, may skew the vote in the incumbent's favor.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the Islamic Revolution, created the Basij in 1988 on university campuses to ensure loyalty to the republic among students.

NDI points to a May 4 statement by an IRGC commander urging the paramilitary group to play an active role in the elections, parroting its ballot-stuffing efforts in the 2005 elections that brought Ahmadinejad to power.

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy raised similar questions in a recent policy paper, raising allegations of Basij intimidation and internal tally manipulation as top concerns.

Iranian officials report few claims of problems during the Friday voting, which was extended because of high turnout. Mousavi complained cellular text messaging used by his campaign was blocked during the polling.