Afshin Molavi, an Iran expert at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington DC, told Al Jazeera that the "Guardian Council is not necessarily an impartial arbiter here".

Molavi pointed out that the council's members are all appointed directly or indirectly by Ayatollah Ai Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, who has backed Ahmadinejad's victory.

"Khamenei put his stamp on this election very early on, and it would be very surprising if the Guardian Council were to do anything that would overturn that," he said.