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Yesterday, the Guardian wrote that the website Ayandeh.com is reporting that some Iranian towns experienced extremely high voter turnout with some percentages topping 100%.
In the most specific allegations of rigging yet to emerge, the centrist Ayandeh website – which stayed neutral during the campaign – reported that 26 provinces across the country showed participation figures so high they were either hitherto unheard of in democratic elections or in excess of the number of registered electors.
While the probability of seeing so many turnout percentages above 95% (reportedly seen in at least 200 towns) would be so low as to make the outcome statistically impossible, the Guardian acknowledges that it cannot verify that these turnout percentages are entirely accurate.
Nonetheless, as foreign and Iranian scholars continue to monitor the state of the uprising and calls for a new election in Iran, these numbers have to be of some consideration. For the people who believe that their votes were stolen, these numbers lend more support for their beliefs, whether they are accurate or not. And if these numbers are accurate, then there is solid proof of the perversion of the democratic process in Iran.
