Iran: High stakes

As Iran simmers what will become of the protest movement? THE Guardian Council, an unelected committee that is meant to oversee Iran's elections, declared on Tuesday June 23rd that it was happy with the presidential poll and that the result would stand. The body continued to uphold Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory despite grudgingly conceding on Monday that there were indeed inconsistencies with the polling. Indeed the number of votes in 50 cities exceeded by 3m the number of voters actually registered there. This will come as a blow to those protesting at Mr Ahmadinejad's triumph. After a weekend of violence in Iran, it is unclear how opponents of the ruling regime will react to news that the efforts to challenge the result through legal channels have come to naught. On Saturday at least ten people were killed in clashes with the Revolutionary Guards and its volunteer auxiliary, the baseej. Since then street protests have died down a bit. But many fear further deaths and injuries are inevitable if protesters take to the streets again in significant numbers now that their hopes of overturning the result have been dashed. ...

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