Why Iran's Election is a Farce
NY Times / ARDESHIR AMIR-ARJOMAND
02-Mar-2012 (2 comments)

ON just two occasions have recent elections in Iran reflected the people’s will and yielded particularly surprising and disorienting outcomes for the ruling establishment, first in 1997 with the election of Mohammad Khatami, and again, three years ago. In June 2009, the democratic opposition, led by the reformist Mir Hussein Moussavi— a former prime minister with a reputation for honesty, integrity and clean politics — polled strongly, only to have the election stolen from it through fraud......

There are no genuine ideological differences between these factions; what motivates them is a lust for power and control of the country’s oil wealth. And they are competing in a polemical race to describe how they would “stamp out” what, in official spin, is labeled as the “remnants of the sedition” — officialese for Iran’s popular Green protest movement, which was brutally attacked three years ago but has nevertheless survived.......

 

  >>>

FG

Rafsanjani suggests cheating

by FG on Fri Mar 02, 2012 06:57 AM PST

 Rafsanjani Warns of Fraud? An EA correspondent has had a look at the comment by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani as he voted this morning, "God willing, the election result is what the people want and what they place in the ballot boxes."

The EnduringAmerica correspondent assesses, "Essentially, Rafanjani is warning about alteration of the results --- and he is doing so explicitly."



Balatarin
Share/Save/Bookmark

 
FG

More on Fake Elections in Iran

by FG on Fri Mar 02, 2012 08:03 AM PST

Ivan Watson, CNN reporter in Tehran: "This is This is the 1st election I've covered anywhere in the world where authorities ordered reporters on buses to cover vote." (via Twitter)

The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has ordered newspapers and magazines to carry headlines that project "excitement for the elections." They have been threatened with fines and publication bans If they fail to do so. Reformists say their polls suggest voter turnout will be around 10 percent, while the ruling hardline factions have predicted that 60 percent of voters will participate.


TEHRAN BUREAU IS RUNNING A "LIVE ELECTION BLOG" WITH INTERESTING QUOTES FROM VOTERS ON THE REGIME & ITS PHONY ELECTIONS 

 

 //www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2012/03/live-blog-parliamentary-elections.html#ixzz1l3EO0URk

 

MORE PROOF THE REGIME WILL LIE BLATANTLY ABOUT ELECTION TURNOUT

Mehr and Fars are even counting former President Khamenei in the turnout by false claiming he voted.   That'll be the day.  The chances of that are about the same as Israel's Netanyahu nominating the Supreme Asshole as "Man of the Year."
From Thomas Erdbrink of the Washington Post:
 One powerful group of hard-line clerics and Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders, united in a coalition called the Stability Front, is calling for more influence for those “elected by God.”   (Note: the generals should qualify that by saying, "those who CLAIM to be elected by God" since most people laught at such preposterous assertions from the Supreme Death Squad Leader & Election Rigger.) From Enduring America 

 

 

Mohammad Taghi Karroubi, the son of detained opposition figures Mehdi and Fatemeh Karroubi, has said that non-participation in the election proves the strength of the opposition in Iran.

 

0830 GMT: An EA correspondent looks through the photographs posted by Fars of today's turnout: "All this is rather speculatve and early but so far, it's the strict regime loyalists --- all the people you can see are close to the establishment. No sign of western-leaning middle classes yet. Definetely different from 2009. Queues look thinner too."

 

n interesting power struggle behind the scenes....

The Guardian Council is claiming this morning that supervision over the elections is solely in its hands and not those of any external individual or body who can monitor them.

An EA correspondent assesses, "The Council is already building a fence against the Interior ministry and any attempts to start decalring results that the Council doesn't 'like'."

0803 GMT: One story we are watching closely is a push for Gholam Ali Hadded Adel, the former Speaker of Parliament, to re-claim that position and eject the current Speaker, Ali Larijani.

Haddad Adel has a personal link to the Supreme Leader --- his son is married to Ayatollah Khamenei's daughter. While Larijani is also close to Khamenei, the Supreme Leader's office may consider Haddad Adel a safer pair of hands to handle the political feuding within the Iranian system.

To implement this scenario, Haddad Adel would come first on the list of candidates approved in Tehran. Meanwhile, Larijani may take a blow by receiving less than 50% of the vote in Qom, forcing him to go through a second round.

Fars backs up this theory with this photograph, "Big election meeting with Haddad Adel proves enthusiasm" of people":

0755 GMT: Two contrasting statements from Iran's voters to Washington Post correspondent Thomas Erdbrink who appears, unlike other foreign reporters (0745 GMT), O be able to move around Tehran....

A voter near Enghelab Square says, ""We are voting to get more out of negotiations with the West, a large turnout makes our country strong."

A young woman at Tehran University has a practical explanation, "I [need to] vote because my ID does not have any voting stamps and I got a job at the oil ministry."

0745 GMT: CNN's Ivan Watson puts the claim of the regime that more than 1600 Iranian and overseas reporters are watching the vote into perspective: "All foreign journalists being BUSSED by authorities to polling stations. No alternative. This is the 1st election I've covered anywhere in the world where authorities ordered reporters on buses to cover vote."

A perspective beyond the ballot box from Human Rights Watch:

 

Iran’s parliamentary elections... will be grossly unfair because of arbitrary disqualifications and other restrictions....The voting for 290 parliamentary seats follows the disqualification of hundreds of candidates based on vague and ill-defined criteria, and opposition leaders are either barred from participating, serving unjust prison sentences, or refusing to participate in what they consider sham elections.

 

 


  •