Iran’s Guardian Council, the constitutional watchdog dominated by hardliners, on Monday confirmed Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad’s victory in the June 12 presidential election, a move that will enrage the reformist opposition and heighten tension.

As the widely expected result was announced the security forces, including members of basij militia, who have played a prominent role in the post-election violence, maintained a high profile on the streets of Tehran amid rumours of a possible opposition rally.

After failing to reach a compromise with Mir-Hossein Moussavi, the opposition leader who says the election was rigged, the Guardian Council conducted a random recount of 10 per cent of the votes in front of state television cameras.

Ahmad Jannati, the council’s secretary, in a letter to the interior ministry said “thorough and comprehensive investigations” into the complaints of candidates showed they were “small which happens in all elections and are insignificant”.

The result of the recount was broadly in line with the assertions of officials, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, that the election was fair.

The result of the council’s partial recount will mark the last step in a legal process designed to bring the curtain down on the ­disputed election and pave the way for the inaug­uration of the radical Mr Ahmadi-Nejad.

The vote-rigging allegations

Mir-Hossein Moussavi, Iran’s opposition leader, has consistently said the June 12 election was “seriously organised” and that the alleged rigging went beyond the voting process, leaving no choice but annulment.

He alleges that Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the president, “extensively” used the government’s financial and logistical resources in his campaign in spite of the legal ban and bought votes through generous cash handouts in the run-up to the election.

On the voting process, Mr Moussavi alleges that:

● his representatives were blocked from entering several polling stations and prevented from monitoring the counting
● ballot boxes were sealed before his representatives could confirm their emptiness
● many ballot papers were either lost or not sent to polling stations
● some ballot boxes were taken out of polling stations
● millions of additional ballot papers were printed without serial numbers
● the results were “engineered”
● the elite Revolutionary Guards were involved in the election process against the constitutional ban

Mr Moussavi also accuses the Guardian Council, the constitutional watchdog, of going beyond its legal obligation to remain impartial. He insists an independent committee comprising clerics and lawyers as well as candidates’ representatives should study his allegations.

Reformist politicians, including Mr Moussavi, have said the next government would lack political legitimacy if reinstated.

They have insisted that their protests will go on but the security crackdown of the past fortnight has deterred many Moussavi supporters from taking to the streets.

The regime has blamed western powers, particularly Britain, for instigating the unrest. After expelling two British diplomats, Tehran arrested nine local employees of the UK embassy at the weekend, accusing them of involvement in the unrest. Five were freed on Monday, but four were still being “questioned”, according to the government.

Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, on Monday condemned the detentions, saying Iran’s action was “unacceptable, unjustified and without foundation”.

In Tehran, Gholam­Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, the intelligence minister, said the British embassy was overstaffed with Iranian employees who were allegedly trained to fuel unrest in Iran and feed protesters with slogans and advice. He said that the government had photographs and videos of the local staff participating in opposition rallies.

The disputed election provoked the biggest and the bloodiest protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution with at least 20 dead and hundreds arrested. The size of the rallies has shrunk, although sporadic gatherings still take place.

Mr Ahmadi-Nejad on Monday urged the judiciary to investigate what he described as the “suspicious” death of Neda Agha-Soltan who has become an international symbol of the post-election protests.

The 27-year-old student was shot in the chest at a protest rally on Saturday June 20 – the bloodiest day of post-election protests when at least 10 people were killed for defying the official ban on any protest in the streets. The Iranian authorities denied responsibility and instead accused “terrorists” of being behind the bloodshed, but the gruesome video of Neda’s shooting had a powerful effect on public opinion, enraging and frightening many.

The regime’s insistence that protesters are responsible for the violence and that they are influenced by western powers has kept tension high. The authorities have claimed that eight members of the security forces were killed in street clashes.

After state television and some pro-government news websites ran pictures and footage of protesters, urging people to inform security forces of their whereabouts, some opposition websites have highlighted the photographs, names and addresses of members of the elite Revolutionary Guard allegedly involved in the crackdown.