 |
StrategyTalk.org
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
parvati_roma
Joined: 30 Mar 2004
Posts: 8068
Location: Italy
|
 Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2005 3:23 pm Post subject: Elections in Iran |
 |
|
Two interesting articles casting light on different aspects of Iran's forthcoming elections:
US looms large in Iran's elections
(if the ad-banner gets in the way/darkens the text, press the "print this article" button on the right for a clear read)
A day in the life of a Tehran cleaning-woman ...(how the rich/poor divide affects voting intentions) |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
parvati_roma
Joined: 30 Mar 2004
Posts: 8068
Location: Italy
|
| Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 5:08 pm Post subject: |
|
|
The official results of the first round of these elections are now in.
| Quote: | Iran Election Headquarters released Saturday the official result for the 9th Presidential Elections.
IRNA reported from the headquarters that of the 29,317,042 votes cast Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad drew the most votes and will contest in a run-off election on Friday.
The number of votes cast for each candidate is the following:
1. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani 6,159,452
2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 5,710,354
3. Mehdi Karroubi 5,066,316
4. Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf 4,075,189
5. Mostafa Moin 3,054,204
6. Ali Larijani 1,740,162
7. Mohsen Mehralizadeh 1,289,223
The report added that over 1,221,940 ballets were invalidated. |
Big voter turnout and the reformist candidate didn't do particularly well - seems the "mullahs' regime" is nowhere near as unpopular with ordinary Iranians as US propaganda likes to make out... ?
BBC background info on Ahmadinejad
Juan Cole's take on his surprising (even to himself) electoral success
(NB: Cole's post was based on earlier, partial results which put Rafsanjani second).
| Quote: |
The Iranian voting public put a hardliner and a conservative pragmatist into a run-off election with their ballots on Friday. With a turnout of 62 percent or more, voters rejected reformist youth calls for a boycott and some said they meant their vote to be a slap in the face of US President George W. Bush. In the lead is Mahmud Ahmadinejad, the former mayor of Tehran and a hardliner close to the Islamist vigilantes ("Basij") of the grass roots Khomeinist movement. Coming in close second is former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a conservative pragmatist who dealt with the Americans during the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal. They will face each other in a run-off next Friday.
Wire services report,
' “I picked Ahmadinejad to slap America in the face,” said Mahdi Mirmalek after attending Friday prayers at Tehran University.
At Tehran University, the leader of Friday prayers, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, told worshippers that voting “strengthens the pillars of the ruling Islamic establishment.” Followers then joined in with the common chant of “Death to America!” '
The vote is a repudiation of the relatively timid reform movement of outgoing president Mohammad Khatami, which never delivered an improved economy or administration. Its attempts to open up the Khomeinist system to greater personal liberties and greater freedom of speech were relentlessly blocked by the hardline clerics that controlled the judiciary and other oversight bodies. The Right closed dozens of reformist newspapers and cracked down on student demonstrations. The only reformist on the ballot, Mostafa Moin, did poorly. He had initially been excluded by the hardline clerics that vet Iranian candidates, but was put back on the ballot at the insistence of Supreme Jurisprudent Ali Khamenei.
It is likely that the Iranian electorate's swing to the Right reflects in part a deep unease about being surrounded by the United States, which has troops both in Afghanistan and Iran. Post-revolutionary Iranians are nationalistic and determined to maintain their national independence, and all the talk by the Bush administration about regime change, aggressive action against Iran over its nuclear research program [which so far appears to have been conducted within the limits set by the Non-Proliferation Treaty], and the illegitimacy of the Iranian elections themselves, appears to have contributed to the greater success of the hardliners. |
So Rafsanjani may have done himself more harm than good - electorally speaking - by promising in his platform to seek better relations with the USA, after all those US barrages of threats and - from an Iranian point of view - insults against Iran? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mr_yak
Joined: 17 Apr 2002
Posts: 3011
Location: Louisville, Colorado
|
| Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 9:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Why is this election relevant when it can be arbitrarily overturned by a "COUNCIL OF GUARDIANS"? I realize that a lot of folks probably feel the same way about the 2000 election in this country, but in Iran it appears to be SOP regardless of the situation if the "desired outcome" is not achieved. For instance, how can you take a system that systematically excludes 98% of candidates? Even Ralph Nader wasn't dealt with so crookedly. 
_________________
"I’m not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling, I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap..."
Letterman to O'Reilly |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
parvati_roma
Joined: 30 Mar 2004
Posts: 8068
Location: Italy
|
| Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 9:52 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Not exactly my ideal system either.
However, the voter turnout WAS reasonably high, they did get to chose between multiple candidates representing a range of different policy-approaches including the reformist area etc etc... so I think the voting outcome can be considered valid, at very least as an opinion-poll with a helluva-big sample group? 
And whichever of the two run-off candidates the Iranians end up chosing, as one's a hardliner and the other's a major establishment figure, don't really think it's all that likely the regime will overturn the results.. so the final winner will have to be viewed as the people's duly-elected choice, whether we like it or not. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mr_yak
Joined: 17 Apr 2002
Posts: 3011
Location: Louisville, Colorado
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:52 am Post subject: |
|
|
| parvati_roma wrote: | | ... don't really think it's all that likely the regime will overturn the results.. so the final winner will have to be viewed as the people's duly-elected choice, whether we like it or not. |
Why would it be necessary to overturn a carefully pre-determined outcome? 
_________________
"I’m not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling, I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap..."
Letterman to O'Reilly |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You cannot download files in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
