TEHRAN, Iran — Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in quiet defiance on the fifth day of post-election chaos yesterday, setting the stage for a showdown today with the increasingly worried hard-liners.
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Trying to stem the uprising, Iran’s “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called in representatives of all four candidates in the dubious election, in an effort to quell the angry protests that threaten the 30-year-old Islamic regime.
Khamenei, who backed extremist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election, has not been seen in a week but is expected to plead for calm tomorrow. Officials said he will make a rare appearance leading Friday prayers in Tehran.
Today, pro-reform activists plan a rally to mourn “martyrs” gunned down by regime thugs at this week’s protests.
Among the latest developments:
* Ahmadinejad opponents cited proof of the rigged election, including figures that showed more than 30 Iranian towns cast more votes than they had registered voters.
One town, Taft, had a turnout of 141 percent, an opposition Web site said. Another town, Kouhrang, had 132 percent.
Government officials said there was a record 85 percent turnout nationally.
* At least 500 political activists, journalists and students were reported to have been arrested during the government’s post-election crackdown.
Among those seized yesterday was Saeed Laylaz, editor of the business daily Sarmayeh, who warned last week that Iran could be headed for a post-election bloodbath.
* Iran accused the United States for the first time of “intolerable” meddling in the crisis.
The mullahs are apparently upset by President Obama’s comment that the continuing upheaval showed the “Iranian people are not convinced with the legitimacy of the election.”
The White House refused to back down.
“The president will continue to express those concerns and ensure that we’re not meddling,” spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
* A group called the Association of Human Rights Activists in Iran said that as many as 32 people had been killed in protests — much higher than the previously reported toll.
It said most of the victims died at Tehran University dormitories on Sunday night and at a government-backed militia headquarters after Monday’s massive pro-democracy rally in the capital.
* The top prosecutor in the central Iranian province of Isfahan warned that Iranians responsible for the upheaval could face the death penalty.
But supporters of moderate candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi poured into the streets of Tehran again yesterday, wearing black in memory of slain protesters, with green armbands in support of the reform movement.
Estimates of the size of the march in Tehran’s Haft-e Tir Square ranged from 100,000 to 500,000 people.
Most of the protesters, some holding pictures of Mousavi, as well as green balloons, were silent and flashed victory signs. One young woman held a picture of one of those killed during post-election violence.
Mousavi called for another massive rally today, as a “ceremony of mourning” for “our countrymen who were wounded or martyred.”
“I ask the people to express their solidarity with the families . . . by coming together in mosques or taking part in peaceful demonstrations,” Mousavi said on his Web site.
The government’s Interior Ministry has repeatedly warned protesters against attending the rallies, but again yesterday, the marchers said they were unafraid of reprisals.
“Why should we be? We are many and they cannot resist our demands,” said a woman who said she was 25.
Mousavi and reformist former President Mohammad Khatami wrote a letter to the State Security Council to complain about attacks on protesters by plainclothes militia.
Mousavi said militiamen had been smashing windows, setting cars on fire and attacking people with batons, iron chains and bars, all while the government tells lies blaming Mousavi supporters for the attacks.
The US-hating, Holocaust-denying Ahmadinejad returned from a summit in Russia yesterday, then appeared on state television to say the people had voted for his “policies of justice.”