国际英语新闻：TV: Iran's supreme leader agrees to extend vote probe deadline

TEHRAN, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has agreed to extend the deadline for the probe into the complaints over the country's presidential election, Iran's Press TV reported Tuesday.

    Khamenei accepted the Guardian Council's request to extend by five days the deadline for the investigation into the complaints over vote irregularities, Press TV said.

In a letter to the supreme leader, the election watchdog has asked for more time to remove any ambiguity over the disputed election.

    Local daily Tehran Times has reported that the Guardian Council would announce its final position on the complaints about the election results on Wednesday.

File photo shows that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks at the Friday prayers congregation on Tehran University campus, on June 19, 2009. He has agreed to extend the deadline for the probe into the complaints over the country's presidential election.

    Earlier Tuesday, Press TV quoted Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaii as saying that the Council has rejected any annulment of the election results because it had found no major irregularities in the election.

    On June 13, Iran's Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli said incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won 62.63 percent of the total ballots, while his main rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi got 33.75 percent.

    The other two candidates -- former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaei -- got less than 2 percent of the total ballots.

    After the official declaration, all the three defeated candidates filed complaints over irregularities in the election, while Mousavi and Karroubi have demanded an annulment of the election.

    Mousavi's supporters have participated in massive rallies in Tehran and other cities over the past days.

    The Guardian Council said on Saturday that it was ready to recount randomly up to 10 percent of the ballot boxes in the disputed presidential election, state television reported.