By IANS,
Tehran : Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Sunday rejected the opposition’s claims of electoral fraud, saying his re-election was “real and free” and could not be questioned.
In his first press conference since the interior ministry announced he won a landslide victory in Friday’s balloting, the hardline president said: “The election was free (transparent) and there is no document proving these charges.”
Dissmissing the his main opponent Mir-Hossein Moussavi’s accusations that the government carried out massive irregularities during the whole electoral process, Ahmadinejad said: “It is really ridiculous that the loser of the election claims that majority of the votes belong to him. This is really absurd.”
He also slammed the foreign media for biased reporting of the election.
“The western media and press only approved of that version of democracy which would produce their desirable results and rejected any decisions by nations which were contrary to their preferences,” IRNA quoted him as saying.
On the question about the foreign media reports of post election violence, Ahmadinejad said: “They (the Western media) have been behaving like this for thirty years now. What should they do if they quit behaving like this?”
“On what documents are they making their claims. They only say the results were contrary to their expectations. Well, they should go and correct their own expectations.”
Accusing certain western media organisations of presenting the views of thier governments, the president said: “Some western media like their governments say some thing, keep repeating it and then end up in believing it.”
“The answer our nation provided to them is quite clear: 40-million-strong voter-turnout with over 25 million having voted in my favour. This means 40 million Iranians are against the interference of western media in their domestic affairs and this nation will repeat this epic at any time of its history.”
Ahmadinejad also claimed that freedom in Iran was “almost at a maximum level” and therefore, the opponents also had been able to express their standpoints so openly.
Moussavi Saturday had planned to deliver a speech in front of the interior ministry and later address a press conference, but both were prevented.
There were also unconfirmed reports Sunday that Moussavi is under house arrest. The 67-year former prime minister has not been seen in public since his press conference Friday night at which he declared himself the real winner and accused the government of voter-fraud.