The head of security for the Tehran election committee said today: “So far 10 saboteurs who had arrived in Tehran from abroad have been arrested and are currently in custody.”
Mohammad Taghi Bagheri told the Fars News Agency: “All the individuals that were in touch with foreign elements were identified through cyber links.”
Following the 2009 presidential elections, Iranian authorities had also claimed they arrested people who “arrived from outside the country in order to disturb public order.”
Iranian security forces have continuously declared their intention to confront any form of disturbance or protest during the elections.
The head of the country’s security forces, Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, told ILNA this week that preventive units would be deployed today, especially in areas with a history of disturbances, to assure peace and order on election day.
The head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Larijani, has announced that the judiciary will not tolerate any disturbances and “will not hesitate in dealing with elections and seditious crimes”
Reformists and opposition groups have boycotted the election,s saying the political atmosphere is too closed and not conducive to open and fair elections. However, the authorities claim it’s the country’s enemies who are calling for a boycott and they have even tried to spread the idea that a poor election turnout will send a signal of weakness for the Islamic Republic system, which may lead to a foreign military attack on the country.
Tehran’s governor and the spokesman for the Guardian Council have already appeared in the media, describing the “extraordinary” presence of the people at the polls.
