A/HRC/19/66 C. Free and fair elections 23. Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights calls for free and fair elections. Furthermore, according to the Constitution, “the affairs of the country must be administered on the basis of public opinion expressed by the means of elections, including the election of the President, the representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the members of councils”. A former Member of Parliament (wishing to remain anonymous) conveyed to the Special Rapporteur, however, that the scope for free and fair elections in his country is severely undermined by the Guardian Council‟s ability to select candidates. He stated that this power is frequently used to prevent individuals perceived as reformist from participating in elections, and also silences representatives who fear that dissent would invalidate their candidacies. The witness‟s account also described widespread fraud during the 2008 parliamentary elections and the 2009 presidential election, which the witness asserted was meant to target candidates deemed to represent a reformist agenda. 24. According to the witness‟s testimony, observers in the cities of Tehran, Shiraz, Tabriz and Mashad reported that polls were still open and that uncounted ballots remained in their unopened boxes when the Fars news agency announced the election results at 9 p.m. in the 2008 elections. This raised widespread concerns about fraud and incited a number of Members of Parliament to protest with members of the Ministry of the Interior. Hours following the protest, at midnight, the Ministry reportedly issued a communiqué stating that no media or news agency was allowed to publish results until the release of its official count later that morning. The witness stated that the results released by the Ministry at 8 a.m. that day were identical to those published by Fars prior to the vote count. The witness added that, despite the fact that candidates had three days to contest the vote, the elections were declared valid the Supreme Leader on the day the results were announced, and complaints submitted to the Guardian Council by candidates in the ensuing days were dismissed. 25. The witness also claimed that the Guardian Council also ignored reports of irregularities and fraud submitted by the presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi in the days following the 2009 election. The witness recalled that the first part of Mr Karroubi‟s report described irregularities prior to election day, including various partisan statements made in support of the incumbent President by members of the Guardian Council and the armed forces,17 despite legal prohibitions on advocacy for candidates by Government officials. The witness also maintained that the report described a lack of access to polling locations by opposition campaign representatives assigned to observe the voting process, and that, like in the 2008 parliamentary election, the early announcement of election results prior to the closure of polling places by Fars had raised concerns about fraud. 26. The witness further cited the interruption of telephone text messaging services (the main source of communication of campaigns during the election). The exceptional size of the winning margin nationwide (even in the hometowns of Mr Karroubi and Mr Mousavi), the breaches of rules governing the confirmation of election results, the existence of 3 million more votes than ballots distributed, and the arrest of three Mousavi campaign workers (Behzad Nabavi, Mostafa Tajzadeh and Mohsen Mirdamadi) and three Karroubi campaign workers (Abdollah Momeni, Issa Saharkhiz and Ahmad Zeidabadi) together with dozens of others on 13 and 14 June, respectively, indicate that the authorities conspired to commit electoral fraud and to allay suspicion and protests. 17 See for example the statement made by the Acting Commander in Chief, Hassan Firouzabadi, on 27 January 2009, at www.fararu.com/vdcgxu9q.ak9y74prra.html. 9