Tens of thousands march for Mousavi in Tehran

By Parisa Hafezi and Hossein Jaseb

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, defying a government ban, marched in downtown Tehran on Monday to protest at what they said was Iran's rigged election.

Several kilometres of a central thoroughfare were packed with crowds who came to hear Mousavi and other pro-reform leaders who back his call for Friday's vote, won by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to be annulled.

State television showed pictures of Mousavi addressing part of the crowd through a megaphone. He told them he was ready in case new elections were called in the Islamic Republic, an aide told Reuters.

"Tanks and guns have no use any longer," chanted the crowd in a deliberate echo of slogans used in protests leading up to Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Calling on Ahmadinejad to resign, they said the election results resembled a "coup d'etat" and chanted "Death to the lying government".

"I just want to show the president that we are not bandits. I want my vote back," said Maryam Sedaghati, a young woman wearing a green headscarf -- Mousavi's campaign colour.

Official results gave Ahmadinejad 63 percent of the vote and Mousavi 34 percent, figures which the moderate former prime minister has dismissed as a "dangerous charade".

He has appealed to Iran's top legislative body for the vote to be cancelled.