Iran Election

[jhale667]

Good news!

Four more years of that psycho Ahmadinnerjacket, instead of a guy who at least seemed to interested in reform? Are you daffy?

[Blaze]

Reform of what? Your statement seems to be a very vague spoon fed statement.

[Nickdfresh]

My deepest sympathies to the Iranian people...even know the office of the "president" is little more than mullah window dressing...

[jhale667]

Your statement seems to be a very vague spoon fed statement.

Gee, the more moderate Mousavi wanted to improve relations with the West and concentrate on helping the people rather that posturing and seeking Nukes.

Riiiight. And you saying Ahmadinnerjacket's "re-election" being a good thing is an idiotic statement....

[jhale667]

Here we go...

Clashes erupt in Iran over disputed election
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI and ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writers

TEHRAN, Iran – Supporters of the main election challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clashed with police and set up barricades of burning tires Saturday as authorities claimed the hard-line president was re-elected in a landslide. The rival candidate said the vote was tainted by widespread fraud and his followers responded with the most serious unrest in the capital in a decade.

Several hundred demonstrators — many wearing the trademark green colors of pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign — chanted "the government lied to the people" and gathered near the Interior Ministry as the final count from Friday's presidential election was announced. It gave 62.6 percent of the vote to Ahmadinejad and 33.75 to Mousavi — a former prime minister who has become the hero of a youth-driven movement seeking greater liberties and a gentler face for Iran abroad.

Mousavi rejected the result as rigged and urged his supporters to resist a government of "lies and dictatorship."

"I'm warning that I won't surrender to this manipulation," said a statement on Mousavi's Web site. "The outcome of what we've seen from the performance of officials ... is nothing but shaking the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran's sacred system and governance of lies and dictatorship," it added.

Mousavi warned "people won't respect those who take power through fraud." The headline on one of his Web sites read: "I won't give in to this dangerous manipulation."

Mousavi and key aides could not be reached by phone.

The clashes in central Tehran were the more serious disturbances in the capital since student-led protests in 1999. They showed the potential for the showdown to spill over into further violence and challenges to the Islamic establishment.

Mousavi appealed directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to intervene and stop what he said were violations of the law. Khamenei, who is not elected, holds ultimate political authority in Iran and controls all major policy decisions.

"I hope the leader's foresight will bring this to a good end," Mousavi said.

But Khamenei closed the door on any chance he could use his limitless powers to intervene in the election dispute. He urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad in a message on state TV, calling the result a "divine assessment."

The demonstrations began Saturday morning shortly before the government announced the final results.

Protesters set fire to tires outside the Interior Ministry and anti-riot police fought back with clubs and smashed cars. Helmeted police on foot and others on buzzing motorcycles chased bands of protesters roaming the streets pumping their fists in the air. Officers beat protesters with swift blows from their truncheons and kicks with their boots. Some of the demonstrators grouped together to charge back at police, hurling stones.

Plumes of dark smoke streaked over the city, as burning barricades of tires and garbage bins glowed orange in the streets.

An Associated Press photographer saw a plainclothes security official beating a woman with his truncheon. Italian state TV RAI said one of its crews was caught in the clashes in front Mousavi's headquarters. Their Iranian interpreter was beaten with clubs by riot police and officers confiscated the cameraman's tapes, the station said.

In another main street of Tehran, some 300 young people blocked the avenue by forming a human chain and chanted "Ahmadi, shame on you. Leave the government alone." There was no word on any casualties from the unrest.

It was not clear how many Iranians were even aware of Mousavi's claims of fraud. Communications disruptions began in the later hours of voting Friday — suggesting an information clampdown. State television and radio only broadcast the Interior Ministry's vote count and not Mousavi's midnight news conference.

Nationwide, the text messaging system remained down Saturday and several pro-Mousavi Web sites were blocked or difficult to access. Text messaging is frequently used by many Iranians — especially young Mousavi supporters — to spread election news.

Mousavi's campaign headquarters urged people to show restraint.

Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, who supervised the elections and heads the nation's police forces, warned people not to join any "unauthorized gatherings."

The powerful Revolutionary Guard cautioned Wednesday it would crush any "revolution" against the Islamic regime by Mousavi's "green movement." The Revolutionary Guard is directly under the control of the ruling clerics and has vast influence in every corner of the country through a network of volunteer militias.

Even before the vote counting began, Mousavi declared himself "definitely the winner" based on "all indications from all over Iran." He accused the government of "manipulating the people's vote" to keep Ahmadinejad in power and suggested the reformist camp would stand up to challenge the results.

"It is our duty to defend people's votes. There is no turning back," he said, alleging widespread irregularities.

Mousavi's backers were stunned at the Interior Ministry's claim that Ahmadinejad won after widespread predictions of a close race — or even a slight edge for the reformist candidate.

Turnout was a record 85 percent of the 46.2 million eligible voters.

"Many Iranians went to the people because they wanted to bring change," said Mousavi supporter Nasser Amiri, a hospital clerk in Tehran. "Almost everybody I know voted for Mousavi but Ahmadinejad is being declared the winner. The government announcement is nothing but widespread fraud. It is very, very disappointing. I'll never ever again vote in Iran."

At Tehran University — the site of the last major anti-regime unrest in Tehran in 1999 — the academic year was winding down and there was no sign of pro-Mousavi crowds. But university exams, scheduled to begin Saturday, were postponed until next month around the country.

Ahmadinejad planned a public address later Saturday in Tehran.

In the capital, several Ahmadinejad supporters cruised the streets waving Iranian flags out of car windows and shouting "Mousavi is dead!"

The election outcome will not sharply alter Iran's main policies or sway major decisions, such as possible talks with Washington or nuclear policies. Those crucial issues rest with the ruling clerics headed by Khamenei.

But the election focused on what the office can influence: boosting Iran's sinking economy, pressing for greater media and political freedoms, and being Iran's main envoy to the world.

Iran does not allow international election monitors. During the 2005 election, when Ahmadinejad won the presidency, there were some allegations of vote rigging from losers, but the claims were never investigated.


Clashes erupt in Iran over disputed election - Yahoo! News

[kwame k]

Still pisses me off about Dubya's Axis of Evil speech. Iran was helping us after 9/11 and wanted to improve relations with us. One speech from Bush and bang, he set us back 20 fucking years. In terms of having any kind of relations with Iran.

[Nitro Express]

Great...... both sides claiming victory, although AP press on the ground can't find anyone who will admit to voting for Ahmadinnerjacket.

Fucking Mossad probably jacked the election so they could get the war that NuttyYahoo wants with every fiber of his black Satanic soul.

Ahmedinnerjacket wants war as bad as Nutty Yahoo does. He needs a distraction badly. Obama and his advisors at The Rand Corporation don't want to bomb Iran but Israel has spent a lot of money on bunker busters and moddified F-15 strike eagle plans to carry them. Of course Israel would love the US to bomb Iran but it's not going to happen with the neocons out of power. Israel is nuts enough to do it themselves and they will. Possibly this summer or fall.

[Blaze]

Jeez, the boogy man press is making the old guy sound like Gar...
" My text messaging quit working! I was not able to post and everybody forgot about me!"

The guy is astute, but not intuitive.

I have already been surfing and reading.

The more reliable source from the Middle East never had Mousavi in the lead, just as a wonderful contender and a blossom for debate. Someone must have Mousavi on crack for Mousavi to announce even before the ballots have been counted that he had won.
Very nicely embellished writing, however. The writer should inquire Michael Jackson for a job on his next album.

Anyone know where Michael is? La La land indeed!

[Blaze]

An Iranian youth, with a national flag on his shoulders, flashes the v-sign of victory during celebrations of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's (portraits) landslide win. Former US president Jimmy Carter (Thanks for the input Jimmy!) said there would be no change in American policy after the re-election of hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

[Blaze]

Supporters of Iran's incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad celebrate in the streets of Tehran following his victory in the presidential elections.

[FORD]

Good news!
The other guy reminded me of Howard Dean or somebody like that

On that basis alone he would have made a great President for the Iranian people.

[FORD]

<div class="post-body">
<p>
<p> Top Pieces of Evidence that the Iranian Presidential Election Was Stolen<br /><br />1. It is claimed that Ahmadinejad won the city of Tabriz with 57%. His main opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is an Azeri from Azerbaijan province, of which Tabriz is the capital. Mousavi, according to such polls as exist in Iran and widespread anecdotal evidence, did better in cities and <a href="http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1901667,00.html "> is popular in Azerbaijan. Certainly, his rallies there were very well attended</a>. So for an Azeri urban center to go so heavily for Ahmadinejad just makes no sense. In past elections, <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009613121740611636.html ">Azeris voted disproportionately for even minor presidential candidates</a> who hailed from that province.<br /><br />2. Ahmadinejad is claimed to have taken Tehran by over 50%. Again, he is not popular in the cities, even, as he claims, in the poor neighborhoods, in part because his policies have produced high inflation and high unemployment. That he should have won Tehran is so unlikely as to raise real questions about these numbers.<br /><br />3. It is claimed that cleric Mehdi Karoubi, the other reformist candidate, received 320,000 votes, and that he <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/2009613121740611636.html ">did poorly in Iran's western provinces, even losing in Luristan</a>. He is a Lur and is popular in the west, including in Kurdistan. Karoubi received 17 percent of the vote in the first round of presidential elections in 2005. While it is possible that his support has substantially declined since then, it is hard to believe that he would get less than one percent of the vote. Moreover, he should have at least done well in the west, which he did not.<br /><br />4. Mohsen Rezaie, who polled very badly and seems not to have been at all popular, is alleged to have received 670,000 votes, twice as much as Karoubi.<br /><br />5. Ahmadinejad's numbers were fairly standard across Iran's provinces. In past elections there have been substantial ethnic and provincial variations.<br /><br />6. The Electoral Commission is supposed to wait three days before certifying the results of the election, at which point they are to inform Khamenei of the results, and he signs off on the process. The three-day delay is intended to allow charges of irregularities to be adjudicated. In this case, Khamenei immediately approved the alleged results.<br /><br />I am aware of the difficulties of catching history on the run. Some explanation may emerge for Ahmadinejad's upset that does not involve fraud. For instance, it is possible that he has gotten the credit for spreading around a lot of oil money in the form of favors to his constituencies, but somehow managed to escape the blame for the resultant high inflation.<br /><br />But just as a first reaction, this post-election situation looks to me like a crime scene. And here is how I would reconstruct the crime.<br /><br />As the real numbers started coming into the Interior Ministry late on Friday, it became clear that Mousavi was winning. <a href="http://www.djavadi.net/2009/06/13/an-electoral-coup-in-iran/ ">Mousavi's spokesman abroad, filmmaker Mohsen Makhbalbaf, alleges</a> that the ministry even contacted Mousavi's camp and said it would begin preparing the population for this victory.<br /><br />The ministry must have informed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has had a feud with Mousavi for over 30 years, who found this outcome unsupportable. And, apparently, he and other top leaders had been so confident of an Ahmadinejad win that they had made no contingency plans for what to do if he looked as though he would lose.<br /><br />They therefore sent blanket instructions to the Electoral Commission to falsify the vote counts.<br /><br />This clumsy cover-up then produced the incredible result of an Ahmadinejad landlside in Tabriz and Isfahan and Tehran.<br /><br />The reason for which Rezaie and Karoubi had to be assigned such implausibly low totals was to make sure Ahmadinejad got over 51% of the vote and thus avoid a run-off between him and Mousavi next Friday, which would have given the Mousavi camp a chance to attempt to rally the public and forestall further tampering with the election.<br /><br />This scenario accounts for all known anomalies and is consistent with what we know of the major players.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/06/13/iran/ "> More in my column, just out, in Salon.com</a>: "Ahmadinejad reelected under cloud of fraud," where I argue that the outcome of the presidential elections does not and should not affect Obama's policies toward that country-- they are the right policies and should be followed through on regardless.<br /><br />The public demonstrations against the result don't appear to be that big. In the past decade, reformers have always backed down in Iran when challenged by hardliners, in part because no one wants to relive the horrible Great Terror of the 1980s after the revolution, when faction-fighting produced blood in the streets. Mousavi is still from that generation.<br /><br />My own guess is that you have to get a leadership born after the revolution, who does not remember it and its sanguinary aftermath, before you get people willing to push back hard against the rightwingers.<br /><br />So, there are protests against an allegedly stolen election. The Basij paramilitary thugs and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards will break some heads. Unless there has been a sea change in Iran, the theocrats may well get away with this soft coup for the moment. But the regime's legitimacy will take a critical hit, and its ultimate demise may have been hastened, over the next decade or two.<br /><br />What I've said is full of speculation and informed guesses. I'd be glad to be proved wrong on several of these points. Maybe I will be.<br /><br />PS: Here's the data:<br /><br />So <a href="http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=98012&sectionid=351020101 ">here is what Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli said Saturday about the outcome of the Iranian presidential</a> elections:<br /><br />"Of 39,165,191 votes counted (85 percent), Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the election with 24,527,516 (62.63 percent)." <br /><br />He announced that Mir-Hossein Mousavi came in second with 13,216,411 votes (33.75 percent).<br /><br />Mohsen Rezaei got 678,240 votes (1.73 percent) <br /><br />Mehdi Karroubi with 333,635 votes (0.85 percent).<br /><br />He put the void ballots at 409,389 (1.04 percent).<br /><br /><br /><br />End/ (Not Continued)<br /><br /><br /></span>


</p>
</div>

Informed Comment: Stealing the Iranian Election

[FORD]

Ahmadinejad reelected under cloud of fraud
But outcome doesn't change goals for Obama -- dealing with Iran's nuclear program and its anti-Israel activities.

By Juan Cole

Jun. 13, 2009 |

A few thousand Iranian young people demonstrated in Iran on Saturday morning to protest the announcement by that country's Interior Ministry that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won a second term by an overwhelming margin of 63 percent. The president's rivals decried ballot fraud and many observers saw the results as a hard-liner coup. If the government really has descended to the level of fixing the presidential elections, it is a sign of deep insecurity and fear of change, as Tehran is challenged by the Obama administration's outreach and by reformist stirrings among youth and women.

Obama administration officials were privately casting doubt on the announced vote tallies. They pointed out that it was unlikely that Ahmadinejad had defeated his chief opponent, Mir-Hossein Moussavi, by a margin of 57 percent, in Moussavi's own home city of Tabriz. Nor is it plausible, as claimed, that Ahmadinejad won a majority of votes in the capital, Tehran, from which he hails. The final tally also gave only 320,000 votes to the other reformist candidate, Mehdi Karoubi, who had helped force Ahmadinejad into a runoff election when he ran in 2005. It seems odd that he get less than 1 percent of the votes in this round. Karoubi, an ethnic Lur from Iran's west, was even alleged to have done poorly in those provinces.

The final vote counts alleged for cities and provinces, even more so than the landslide claimed by the incumbent nationally, strongly suggest a last-minute and clumsy fraud. A carefully planned theft of the election would at least have conceded Tabriz to Moussavi and the rural western Iranian villages to Karoubi.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei quickly recognized Ahmadinejad's victory, hailing a remarkable turnout of 80 percent of eligible voters. With the backing of the clerical supreme leader, Ahmadinejad's victory is unassailable in the theocratic Iranian system, where Shiite clerics hold ultimate power. In the past decade, despite occasional demonstrations launched by students, the regime has easily been able to repress dissent with right-wing popular militias and other pro-conservative paramilitaries. They also succeeded in excluding reformists from political power by denying them the right to run for office on the grounds that they do not pass an ideological litmus test. The repressive abilities of the hard-liners should not be underestimated, despite the public anger over a possibly stolen election.

The primary challenger to incumbent Ahmadinejad, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi, was widely thought to have a number of crucial constituencies behind him. Urban youth and women, who had elected a reformist president in 1997 and 2001, showed enthusiasm for Moussavi. He also showed an ability to bring out big crowds in his native Azerbaijan, where a Turkic language, Azeri, is spoken rather than Persian. (Azeris constitute about a third of the Iranian population.) It was expected that if the turnout was large, that would help Moussavi.

But not only did Iran's Electoral Commission announce that Ahmadinejad had won almost two-thirds of the general vote, it also gave him big majorities in major cities such as Tehran and Tabriz (the latter is the capital of Azerbaijan). These results seemed unbelievable not only to Moussavi supporters but to many professional Iran observers. Although candidates in Iran's presidential elections are closely vetted, and only four out of hundreds of applicants were allowed to run this time, once the candidates were certified the elections have been relatively free and fair in the past. If proved true, electoral fraud on the scale being charged by Ahmadinejad's rivals risks further undermining the legitimacy of the regime in the eyes of the public.

Less was at stake in these elections than many outsiders assumed, however, since the Iranian presidency is weak and most important policy is set by Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei (his title is the giveaway). The election was mostly about style, rather than substance. Mir-Hossein Moussavi complained that Ahmadinejad's bizarre downplaying of the Holocaust had made Iran a laughingstock, and that the incumbent had dictatorial tendencies. But he expressed support for the Palestinians. He objected to the cost of ramping up Iran's civilian nuclear energy research program, though he said he was committed to continuing it at a slower pace. He offered to negotiate with American President Barack Obama if the latter was found to be acting in good faith. But most of his differences with Ahmadinejad were on domestic policy, including his advocacy of more personal liberties, more rights for women, and a freer media environment, including private television channels.

The outcome of the election therefore changes little for the Obama administration. The outstanding issues between Iran and the U.S. mainly have to do with Iran's support for the Palestinians against Israel and with Iran's nuclear enrichment program, which Washington fears could ultimately be put to dual use and eventuate in a nuclear warhead. Those two outstanding issues would have remained no matter who won the presidency. Obama is determined to deal with them by undercutting Iran on the Palestine issue by making strides toward a Palestinian state, by avoiding military confrontation, and by direct talks over better safeguards that Iran's nuclear program remains purely civilian in character. These policies are the most promising ones for achieving U.S. and NATO goals with regard to Iran, and should be pursued regardless of who holds the weak and ineffectual office of president in Tehran.

-- By Juan Cole

Ahmadinejad reelected under cloud of fraud | Salon

[sadaist]

Maybe Ahmadinejad has his own version of ACORN backing him up.

[FORD]

Maybe Ahmadinejad has his own version of ACORN backing him up.

More like his own version of Ken Blackwell and DIEBOLD.

Get over the right wing racist rhetoric about ACORN. They did nothing wrong.