Ayatollah orders vote probe as Iran riots

 Iran’s top legislative body, the Guardian council, said on Monday it had received two official complaints from defeated presidential candidates and would issue its ruling within 10 days.

“After reviewing their complaints, the result will be announced to the candidates,” Guardian council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai said.

Iran’s defeated opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi appeared at a rally on Monday. More than 1,00,000 opponents of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defied an interior ministry ban and streamed into central Teheran to cheer their pro-reform leader in his first public appearance since disputed elections he claims were marred by fraud.

Security forces are watched quietly, with shields and batons at their sides.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has ordered a probe into the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad, reversing his earlier decree that the result was fair.  The intervention came as Iran faced a third day of protests by reformists, who claimed the election was rigged.