TEHRAN, Dec. 16--The results of Experts Assembly and Majlis midterm elections will be announced late Saturday.
Abdollah Roshan, the head of Tehran Elections Headquarters, also told reporters on Saturday that the results of council elections in Tehran province, excluding Karaj and Shahriyar, will be announced in local newspapers, IRNA reported.
“The list of candidates, except those announced by the elections headquarters, is unofficial and unacceptable,“ he added.
Roshan noted that more than 80 percent of ballot boxes of the Experts Assembly elections and more than 65 percent of the ballot boxes of midterm elections have been counted.
He explained that since more than 1,200 candidates and 3,300 polling stations were involved in the local council elections, vote counting was much slower compared with the Experts Assembly election.
“The final result of Tehran council elections is expected to be announced by Tuesday,“ he said.
While appreciating the people’s high turnout in the elections, he pointed out that people’s participation in Tehran council elections was between 35 and 40 percent and shows a threefold increase compared with the previous council elections.
He further said 75 percent of eligible voters in Tehran province cast their votes, with 4.4 million voting in the city of Tehran alone.
Referring to the fact that votes are being counted by hand, he said this method is 50 years old.
“Unfortunately, when the new method of counting votes by computers is proposed, some people create problems,“ he said.

Ismail Haniya

RAMALLAH,
Occupied Palestine, Dec. 16--Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas called Saturday for early elections amid seething tensions with Hamas, prompting the ruling Islamists to accuse him of staging a coup.
Hamas called for Palestinians to take to the streets to protest the call for polls, which it said was a call for “civil war“ that it would seek to avoid, AFP reported.
In an impassioned 90-minute speech, Abbas said he decided elections were the way to resolve a spiraling standoff with Hamas, which has paralyzed the Palestinian administration since the Islamists took office in March.
“We are living through difficult and miserable times ... To break the vicious circle and prevent our lives from deteriorating further and our cause from eroding, I have decided to call early presidential and legislative elections,“ Abbas said.
“Basic law stipulates that the people are the source of power. Let the people have their say and decide.“
But Abbas left the door open to forming a government of national unity with Hamas and avoiding polls, which would be only the third election in the territories since the formation of the Palestinian Authority in 1994. “A national unity government composed of technocrats“ remained “the first priority,“ he said.
The Hamas-led government, in power since March, immediately rejected the call, saying it was “a coup d’etat against the will of the Palestinian people“ and that it contradicted Palestinian Basic Law.
The Palestinian Basic Law, the effective constitution, does not address the issue of early elections.
Hamas says the absence of such a provision prohibits holding early polls, while the Abbas entourage says such an election can be held since there is no passage specifically prohibiting it.
A senior Abbas aide, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said the early elections “will take place between now and three months“.
A top Hamas official told AFP the ruling Islamists were calling on Palestinians to come out in the streets to protest the measure, which he said amounted to a call for “civil war.“
“Today what we have heard from Abu Mazen is a call, which if God willing we will try to avoid, for a civil war,“ said Ahmed Yussef, a political advisor to Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.
But after a week of escalating internecine violence, Hamas’s armed wing Ezzeddine Al-Qassam Brigades said it would do all it could to avoid clashes with Fatah supporters.

TEHRAN, Dec. 16--A lawmaker said on Saturday the long delay in court verdicts and the rise in the number of dossiers should be corrected by the judiciary.
Morteza Mousavi also told Mehr News Agency that although the time of reviewing dossiers has been reduced, it is inadequate and people are complaining of delays in judicial procedures. “This problem can be overcome by increasing the number of electronic judicial complexes,“ he said.
Mousavi, who is also a member of Majlis Legal and Judicial Commission, pointed out that only one electronic judicial complex is presently operating in the country.
“This is while these complexes can help resolve many judicial problems,“ he said.
Mousavi pointed out that, for instance, the judiciary is working on a dossier despite a lapse of 15 years.
“The measures taken by Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi in recent years have been helpful. However, the trend should continue,“ he said.