Via the BBc; Khatami urges referendum on poll

Mr Khatami said there was no alternative to having a referendum, which he called for an independent body to carry out.

“I state openly that reliance upon the people’s vote and the staging of a legal referendum is the only way for the system to emerge from the current crisis,” Mr Khatami said.

“People must be asked whether they are happy with the situation that has taken shape,” he said.

He suggested that an impartial body such as the Expediency Council should hold the referendum and pledged that his political supporters would respect the result whatever it was.

Of course, the Ahmadinejad faction aren’t going to see the Expediency Council as impartial, given that Rafsanjani (of the pro-Mousavi faction), is the Chair of that body. Still, I continue to think that the body will eventually place some role here, as they have (at least technically) supervisory powers over other institutions of the Iranian state.

Still, the idea of a referendum strikes me as a non-starter:

Only the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, can organise a referendum.

Ayatollah Khamenei has already declared the elections, which the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won by a landslide, as valid.

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