Ahmadinejad wins Iran presidential election

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[PeruvianSkies]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8098305.stm

I smell foul play...

[SmartAssmodeus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8098305.stm

I smell foul play...

Isn't that the norm for that part of the world?

So the world is stuck with the little monkey man for another 5 (?) years.

[PeruvianSkies]

62% is still a bit much though.

[PeruvianSkies]

Iran has errupted into violence-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8098896.stm

[Zaephon]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8098305.stm

I smell foul play...

Absolutely. The "elections" were a joke. The current structure of Iran has absolutely nothing to do with democracy, not even a tyranny of the majority. Many people do not even vote, to show their protest, since the elections are open to all kinds of fraud.

Then again, I don't think Iran would change even if the Reformists won. A revolution is long overdue, bloodless or otherwise.

[ExHindu]

This is even worse than the BNP gaining a couple of seats in Europe.

I were hoping for this guy to be beaten in the Iranian election, but with the tactics that were used like banning protests and even things as small as facebook, it is made even harder for other candidates to compete.

I really wish that voting everywhere was limited to only people with a university degree, when you have the tribalistic farmers and village folk voting in their masses, the whole election gets messed up, who really must be the kind of people who still vote for A mad man in a shack.

Ok, I cant come up with a wittier pun for his name.

Ahmad in a ...

Bag? Shack? Jihad? Shat?

Oh, A mad (man) in a (pile of) shat!

Shat meaning to shit. Maybe someone else can come up with something better.

[PeruvianSkies]

Ex-Hindu;, they call him the monkey in Iran. I personally call him Ahmedjeans but thats mainly because his name is difficult to pronounce

Then again, I don't think Iran would change even if the Reformists won. A revolution is long overdue, bloodless or otherwise.

Exactly, Ayatollah and his cronies are the real rulers.

[Zaephon]

This is what the Lanetollah says about the elections:

"Enemies may want to spoil the sweetness of this event... with some kind of ill-intentioned provocations,"

And this is what an Iranian says:

I did not vote, I think the system is corrupt and this result shows that it is corrupt. I am very disappointed with the outcome. People are not happy with Ahmadinejad, some of my friends cried when they heard the results. It is a sad day for us.

I feel so much sympathy for her. 

[PeruvianSkies]

I'm hoping this sparks a massive uprising. There's only one way to truly make a change.

[DMB]

It's a very sad day. I think they fiddled the vote amd went too far to be credible. No way did that evil clown get such a large percentage.

[Hassan]

Sad.

[Cheetah]

There's no way that result is genuine.....

It is certainly not unprecedented for Western observers to miscalculate the outcome of an election in a country where pre-election polls are not as rigorous as Western countries, particularly when there is a clear bias towards a particular candidate.  At the same time, the predictions of knowledgeable Iranian observers from various countries and from across the political spectrum were nearly unanimous in the belief that the leading challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi would defeat incumbent president  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad decisively in yesterday?s presidential election, certainly in the runoff if not in the first round.  This also appeared to be the assumption among independent observers in Iran itself.

So overwhelming were the signs of imminent Ahmadinejad defeat and so massive was the margin of his alleged victory, the only reasonable assumption was that there has been fraud on a massive scale.  What polls did exist showed Mousavi leading by a clear majority and Ahmadinejad well under 40%, a margin roughly similar to what most analysts had suggested based on anecdotal evidence.  Instead, the official results show Ahmadinejad winning by an overwhelming 63% of the vote.

The unmistakable political trend in Iran in the past four years has been toward greater liberalism and moderation, particularly with the addition of millions of new younger voters who are overwhelmingly disenchanted with Ahmadinejad?s ultra-conservative social policies and failed economic policies.  The very idea that he would do substantially better than he did in the election four years ago, therefore, is ludicrous at face value.  Indeed, in municipal and other elections held over the past couple of years, Ahmadinejad?s preferred slates lost heavily to moderate conservatives and reformers.

Ahmadinejad won a tight presidential race four years ago campaigning as an economic populist, gaining wide support among the poor for his calls for reducing inequality and fighting endemic corruption.  However, his administration has been at least as corrupt as his predecessors, his economic policies have resulted in high inflation and high unemployment, and he has been ruthless is suppressing labor unions, such as the bus drivers strike in Tehran.  As a result, his popularity has plummeted, making the idea of substantially greater popular support today particularly questionable. 

There are also more direct indications of fraud.

In past elections, there have been substantial variations in the vote of various candidates based on ethnicity and geography, but the official results show Ahmadinejad?s vote totals being relatively uniform across the country.  Mousavi, an Azeri from the province of Azerbaijan who has been quite popular there, did poorly, according to official results.  This is particularly striking since even minor candidates from that area had done disproportionately well in previous elections.  Similarly, Mehdi Karoubi, the other reformist candidate and an ethnic Lur, supposedly fared poorly in his home province of Luristan.  Nationally, Karoubi went from 17% in the 2005 election to less than 1% this year with no apparent reason for such a precipitous decline.  Meanwhile, the much-despised Mohsen Rezaie, the other hardline candidate, allegedly got twice as many votes.

http://www.alternet.org/world/140626/iran%3A_a_stolen_election/

There are also rumours on Facebook that Mousavi has been placed under house arrest.

6:14 update: Through Facebook we have received news that Mir Hossein
Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Gholamhossein Karbaschi are under house arrest.

http://niacblog.wordpress.com/

[Zaephon]

The mullahs are taunting Iranians. The fraud is very obvious.

The door for possible compromise was closed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He could have used his near-limitless powers to intervene in the election dispute. But, in a message on state TV, he urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, calling the result a "divine assessment."

[IsLame]

The door for possible compromise was closed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He could have used his near-limitless powers to intervene in the election dispute. But, in a message on state TV, he urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, calling the result a "divine assessment."

He means its Prophet Ahmadinejad (pbuh) to us plebs

[Iggy]

Khamenei has been in power for nearly 30 years!

[Iggy]

This is what the Lanetollah says about the elections:

And this is what an Iranian says:
I feel so much sympathy for her.  :'(

[atheist.pk]

An Iranian football forum I am frequent visitor at, has erupted against this farcical result.

[Q-Man]

I'm hoping this sparks a massive uprising. There's only one way to truly make a change.

I don't know that there's only one way, but Iran is definitely in need of a counter-revolution, or a new social revolution, however you choose to frame it. The Shah was a piece of shit to be sure and we shouldn't have been supporting him, but the 1979 Revolution has really held back progress in Iran. It's sad-- even with the reactionary shitbags in charge there Iran is one of the most advanced countries in the region-- just imagine how much more advanced they'd be if the reactionaries weren't in power. With a secular liberal government/society, Persia could be a regional superpower, and in a good way (much as they were in the past).

[ExHindu]

Persia has always been one of the worlds major superpowers throughout history, and then they ruined themselves with the Islamic Revolution.

Since then the country has been going downhill. A secular democratic goverment allong with the same freedom for every person in Iran that the West also has would allow Iran to build itself back up to its former glory.

But then, if that ever happens, an Islamic Revolution could happen again later on, and then Political Islam would be even more powerful :x

Just WHY did Islam have to ruin so many countries in this world?

If I had a time machine, I would go back in time and assassinate the Prophet Mohammed. That would fix the entire world today lol.

[IsLame]

Persia has always been one of the worlds major superpowers throughout history, and then they ruined themselves with the Islamic Revolution.

Since then the country has been going downhill. A secular democratic goverment allong with the same freedom for every person in Iran that the West also has would allow Iran to build itself back up to its former glory.

But then, if that ever happens, an Islamic Revolution could happen again later on, and then Political Islam would be even more powerful :x

Just WHY did Islam have to ruin so many countries in this world?

If I had a time machine, I would go back in time and assassinate the Prophet Mohammed. That would fix the entire world today lol.

Lets do a poll, and see if anyone agrees..

[Cheetah]

Persia has always been one of the worlds major superpowers throughout history, and then they ruined themselves with the Islamic Revolution.

I'm no fan of the Islamic Revolution, but if they'd been left alone when they had Mossadegh in charge there wouldn't have been an Islamic revolution. 

[Q-Man]

I'm no fan of the Islamic Revolution, but if they'd been left alone when they had Mossadegh in charge there wouldn't have been an Islamic revolution. 

Tsk, tsk, Cheetah-- repeating that tired leftist canard. Everybody knows the real reason is because Jimmy Carter abandoned the Shah-- had we interfered even more everything would be okay right now.

[Cheetah]

Tsk, tsk, Cheetah-- repeating that tired leftist canard. Everybody knows the real reason is because Jimmy Carter abandoned the Shah-- had we interfered even more everything would be okay right now.

Carter was also an idiot.  But it was too late by then anyway, by toppling a truly democratic regime in Iran they were left with a brutal secular dictator or a brutal theocratic regime.  The US and UK should have left well enough alone when Iran had a working democracy instead of being so fucking obsessed with their oil interests.

[Zaephon]

I'm no fan of the Islamic Revolution, but if they'd been left alone when they had Mossadegh in charge there wouldn't have been an Islamic revolution. 

I think reactionary elements would find some outlet to vent their ideological anger anyway. Anyway, it's too late for regrets. The Islamic Republic must be eliminated in one way or another.

[allat]

Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html

and Tehran Bureau http://tehranbureau.com/2009/06/13/alerts-from-tehran/

are both liveblogging the events. The BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8099579.stm has compiled a small list of online resources where a lot of the information is being circulated (many from on-the-ground reports) about the protests and the police state trying to stifle the protests.