TEHRAN, June 18 (UPI) -- Iran's Guardian Council said Thursday it will invite all four presidential candidates to a meeting to discuss their concerns over the disputed election results.
Despite a requirement for a hand count of all votes, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared victory in the Friday election contest within hours of the closing of the polls. His main challenger, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, led charges claiming the election results were rigged.
Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, a spokesman for the Guardian Council, said the four challengers -- Ahmadinejad, Mousavi, former military commander Mohsen Rezaei and former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi -- would be allowed to voice their concerns at a meeting next week, Iran's state-funded Press TV reports.
"The presidential candidates will be invited to the meeting to be held early next week to express their ideas and ask any questions in the presence of the Guardian Council's members," the spokesman said.
The Guardian Council said it has received more than 600 complaints of violations of the electoral process by the three Ahmadinejad challengers.
Supporters of Mousavi, who himself declared victory before the polls closed Friday, staged a mass rally Thursday in honor of the estimated eight people killed during demonstrations, calling on his supporters to wear black in support of the victims.
Press TV reports "hundreds of thousands" of Mousavi supporters marching across Imam Khomeini Square at a rally that began at 4 p.m. local time.
The Association of Combatant Clerics, the lead Reformist body in Iran, has asked the governor in Tehran for permission to hold a pro-Mousavi rally Saturday.
Iranian authorities have officially banned protests in the wake of the election, though demonstrations have continued since Friday.
