TEHRAN, Iran - - Hundreds of thousands of Iranian protesters defied authorities Monday and marched to Tehran's Freedom Square, as the Islamic Republic's supreme leader ordered an investigation into allegations of voter fraud that the opposition described as little more than an attempt to dampen anger over the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the Guardian Council, which is filled with his own appointees and led by a hard-line cleric close to Ahmadinejad, to examine challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi's claims of vote fraud.
Days after Khamenei blessed the election of Ahmadinejad and urged Iranians to rally behind the president, the spokesman of the Guardian Council urged Mousavi's supporters to wait for the "final results" of Friday's election after an investigation into claims of fraud that will begin today.
"My request to the dear candidates and their supporters, who are trying to voice their objections while respecting the law and ethics, is to bear with us," council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodai said in a roundtable discussion on live television Monday. "The final result will be the one announced by the Guardian Council, which everyone should hopefully accept."
His call for patience came as gunfire from a pro-government militia base adjacent to the demonstration killed one and injured others, news agencies reported.
The protesters, with crowd estimates ranging from 100,000 to more than 1 million, defied Interior Ministry warnings broadcast on state television and radio that anyone showing up would be beaten or worse, and even ignored Mousavi's last-minute call to cancel the event.
They found out about the rally despite a media clampdown that brought the shuttering of numerous opposition Web sites, including those linked to Mousavi, the jamming of satellite news channels and the shutting down of text-messaging systems. In an attempt to help keep information flowing, a Twitter co-founder wrote in a blog Monday that the company had delayed an important maintenance operation.
Pro-Ahmadinejad demonstrators hurled eggs at the French Embassy on Monday, attempting to link the West to the unrest surrounding the election results.
President Barack Obama said his administration would continue to seek to negotiate with Iran's leaders.
