Among them, many film directors like Jafar Panahi[7] (who was consequently banned from making movies for 20 years and condemned to six years imprisonment),[8][9] Mohammad Rasoulof (also condemned to 6 years imprisonment),[10] actors and actresses like Pegah Ahangarani (who was consequently imprisoned),[11] Ramin Parchami (who was consequently condemned to one year imprisonment),[12] sportsmen like the whole Iran national football team who wore green wristbands in their game against South Korea to support the movement,[13][14] scholars like Mostafa Tajzadeh, Mohsen Aminzadeh, Akbar Ganji, Mohsen Sazegara, many religious figures like Mohsen Kadivar, Grand Ayatollah Yousef Saanei, Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Mohammad Dastgheib Shirazi, traditional singers like Mohammad Reza Shajarian, defected Basij and Iranian Revolutionary Guards like Amir Farshad Ebrahimi and those who confessed with covered faces.

[23][24] However, Mousavi stated that a recount would not be sufficient since he claimed 14 million unused ballots were missing, giving the Interior Ministry an opportunity to manipulate the results.

[25] On 19 June, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced the pro-Mousavi demonstrations as illegal,[26] and protests the next day were met with stiff resistance from government forces, with many reported deaths.

[27] The Green Movement of Iran continued its peaceful protests until 14 February 2011 and radicalized itself demanding a total regime change and departure of Khamenei from power.

The Iranian reform movement attempted to unite behind a single candidate; former president Mohammad Khatami was the leading opponent to Ahmadinejad in some opinion polls, until he withdrew and endorsed former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

[49] Former Speaker of the Majlis Mehdi Karroubi, another Reformist, was also running; as was the former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Mohsen Rezaee, a conservative with a reputation for political pragmatism.

Mousavi and two other candidates said Ahmadinejad lied about the state of the economy, which was suffering from high inflation and a fall in oil revenues from last year's record levels.

He opposed the government's current strict enforcement of Islamic dress and social behavior,[53] calling for an end to the regime's 'Vice Police'.

[32] Robert Fisk also remarked a Mousavi victory would mean closer ties with the U.S.[30] The campaign was the most expensive in the Islamic Republic's history, with the two main candidates spending over tens of millions of dollars in a bid to convince voters.

Another interesting phenomenon taking place during the campaign was a dramatic rise in text messages sent to Iranian cell phone subscribers – between 60  and 110 million.

Rafsanjani responded to these charges on 9 June in an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei requesting that he stepped in to rebuke Ahmadinejad for his comments at the debate.

[69] Mousavi's and Karroubi's campaign posters in Tehran claimed that a high turnout would reduce Ahmadinejad's chance of winning the election.

[57] An independent poll, conducted by Terror Free Tomorrow: The Center for Public Opinion, a nonprofit institute that researches attitudes toward extremism, found that Ahmadinejad was leading by a margin of 2 to 1.

Writing in The Washington Post, pollsters Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty have used this to suggest that Ahmadinejad's apparent victory might reflect the will of the Iranian people.

[97] Mobile phone communications were interrupted in Tehran on election day and the BBC has stated that "heavy electronic jamming" was being used to halt their broadcasts.

[101] The New York Times quoted an unnamed employee of the Interior Ministry claiming that "the government had been preparing its fraud for weeks, purging anyone of doubtful loyalty and importing pliable staff members from around the country.

[103] On 18 June, Iranian film makers Marjane Satrapi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf appeared before Green Party members in the European Parliament to present a document allegedly received from a member of the Iranian electoral commission claiming that Mir-Hossein Mousavi had actually won the election, and that the conservative incumbent Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had received only 12% of the vote.

[104][105][106] According to Reza Esfandiari and Yousef Bozorgmehr, the election data is consistent with a natural outcome in a statistical sense, allowing for some possible fraud at the local level.

In all those cities Ahmadinejad won by 80% to 90%[108] However, "excess votes" have been common in all Iranian elections partly due to the way eligible voters are counted.

[111] Another anomaly, according to British-based researcher Ali Alizadeh, is that a large turnout did not favour the opposition, since in elections, both in Iran and abroad, "those who usually don’t vote, i.e. the silent majority, only come out when they want to change the status quo.

[120] Civil unrest took place as protesters set fire to tyres outside the Interior Ministry building and others formed a human chain of around 300 people to close off a major Tehran street.

[123] That day, protests had been organized in front of the Iranian embassies in Turkey,[29] Dubai,[29] Paris,[124] Berlin,[124] London,[125] Rome,[126] Sydney,[127] Vienna[124] and The Hague.

[25][132] However, The Times quoted a Rasoul Akram Hospital nurse that day who asserted that 28 people have suffered from "bullet wounds" and eight have died so far.

That day, the Iranian opposition group, "Human Rights Activists News Agency", stated that 32 people had died protesting during the events of 24 and 25 June.

[142] Intelligence minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei linked some arrests to terrorism supported from outside Iran, stating that "more than 20 explosive consignments were discovered".

[144] Human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani, who had been demanding a recount of all votes, was also arrested on the Tuesday according to Shirin Ebadi, who said that security officials had posed as clients.

[140] On 17 June, former foreign minister and secretary-general of the Freedom Movement of Iran, Ebrahim Yazdi, was arrested while undergoing tests at Pars hospital in Tehran.

[140] Aaron Rhodes, a spokesman for the international campaign for human rights in Iran, stated that "Iranian intelligence and security forces are using the public protests to engage in what appears to be a major purge of reform-oriented individuals whose situations in detention could be life-threatening".

"[150] Reporters from the Italian public television broadcaster RAI stated that one of its interpreters was beaten with clubs by riot police and the officers then confiscated the cameraman's tapes.

[17][152] Al Jazeera English leveled allegations of direct media censorship by the Iranian government, stating that "some of the newspapers have been given notices to change their editorials or their main headlines".