Morteza Alviri, a representative of Karroubi, said in an interview that the proposed committee would be biased, since five of the six announced members (aside from any opposition representatives) share Ahmadinejad's political philosophy, and some had even campaigned for him.

In addition, he said, the committee plans to recount just 10 percent of the ballot boxes. "The problem is, we don't trust the ballot boxes anymore," he said, adding that in the two weeks since the election, the Ahmadinejad government has had ample time to tamper with the boxes.

Alviri said the opposition wants a "committee formed of unbiased and independent members" with full authority to reach decisions that would be binding on the Guardian Council.

"We will not participate" in the special committee," he said. "We will not send a representative because we have problems with the makeup of the committee and the scope of its activities." He said any review committee "should be able to investigate the whole election from beginning to end," covering such issues as the initial vetting of candidates by the Guardian Council and the alleged use of government resources by the Ahmadinejad campaign.

"Our duty is to safeguard the people's votes," Alviri said of the opposition's objective at this point. "People on the street stop us and tell us that if you don't get our votes back, you have betrayed us. And we are not going to betray the people."