Many Iranians unconvinced about poll result - cleric

By Hossein Jaseb

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A senior pro-reform cleric said many Iranians remained unconvinced about President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election because of voting "ambiguities" and the government could face problems, an Internet statement said.

Grand Ayatollah Yusof Saanei also urged the authorities not to violate people's rights, in an apparent reference to their handling of mass protests that erupted after last month's disputed presidential election.

"I remind you that no instruction or command can be a permission or excuse to violate people's rights and this could be a great sin," he said in a statement posted on his website on Friday.

The authorities reject opposition charges of vote rigging, saying the election was the country's "healthiest" since the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah.

They have portrayed the protests as the work of local subversives and foreign powers, especially Britain.

Saanei is an ally of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, Iran's most senior dissident cleric. Montazeri was an architect of the Islamic revolution who fell out with the present leadership and was under house arrest for some years.

The June 12 vote stirred the most striking display of internal dissent in Iran since the revolution three decades ago and strained ties with the West.