The Iranian Election

Iran Detains Reformists as Election Protests Continue - Voice of America. Iranian authorities have detained more than 100 people connected to opposition political parties while riot police worked to contain continuing protests against the landslide reelection victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reformists said Sunday one of those arrested is a brother of Iran's former reformist President Mohammad Khatami. They said some activists were released after being detained. Also Sunday, reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi appealed to Iran's powerful Guardian Council of Islamic clerics for the cancellation of election results. Mr. Mousavi has blamed his defeat on what he says was government voter fraud. President Ahmadinejad has said the election was free and fair. Mr. Mousavi urged his supporters to continue protesting in a peaceful and legal manner. Pro-Mousavi activists held a second day of protests in Tehran Sunday, setting fires in the streets and fighting with police. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of supporters of President Ahmadinejad celebrated in the capital. http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-14-voa2.cfm


Rage Smolders in Iran - Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday defended his weekend election victory while security forces cracked down on op position leaders and demonstrators, who staged a second day of violent protests across the capital and in other Iranian cities. The standoffs represent the biggest domestic unrest since authorities put down student riots at Tehran University a decade ago. In some parts of town, black smoke, ash and shattered glass covered the main roads and sidewalks. Along several roads in both uptown and downtown Tehran, many banks - all government-owned - had been attacked the previous night, and their glass windows and doors smashed. Public property such as bus stops and street signs were vandalized. At Mohseni Square in north Tehran, three buildings were burned completely. Mr. Ahmadinejad's defeated challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, said in a statement he was under house arrest and banned from appearing in public. Neither statement has been confirmed by the government. In a post on his Web site, Mr. Mousavi called for a peaceful demonstration on Monday afternoon and asked the police to issue him a permit. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124495476438612973.html


Iranian Candidate Exhorts Protesters - Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. A defiant Mir Hossein Mousavi, leading an opposition movement against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called on his supporters Sunday to continue protesting the outcome of the election in which the incumbent was proclaimed the landslide winner. Mousavi asked the influential Guardian Council to declare the election null and void because of fraud and irregularities. Riots erupted for a second day, with gunshots heard in several locations in Tehran and unrest in the Caspian Sea city of Rasht and the central Iranian city of Shiraz, witnesses said in phone interviews. A large rally is planned by Mousavi supporters for Monday afternoon in Tehran. On Sunday, Ahmadinejad led a victory rally near Vali-e Asr square attended by tens of thousands of people waving Iranian flags, which his campaign adopted as its symbol. At an earlier news conference, he declared the Iranian election a "true manifestation of people's right to decide their own destiny." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/14/AR2009061400385.html?hpid=topnews


Unrest Deepens as Critics Are Detained - Robert F. Worth and Nazila Fathi, New York Times. Violence and acrimony over Iran’s disputed election intensified on Sunday, with word spreading that more than 100 prominent opposition members had been detained, riots erupting in Tehran and other cities, and the triumphant incumbent hinting that his top challenger risks punishment for questioning the result. Two of the three opposition candidates and a clerical group issued fresh statements requesting an annulment of the election on Friday, which gave a lopsided victory to the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a conservative who has become a polarizing figur e at home and abroad. They did so despite a decree from Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, that the outcome was fair. It was unclear how far Mr. Ahmadinejad’s adversaries were willing or able to go in challenging the result. But supporters of the opposition candidates skirmished with baton-wielding riot police officers on the edges of a government-organized victory rally in Tehran. There were also reports of riots in other Iranian cities, and the protests were echoed by Iranians demonstrating against the election results in Washington and in several European capitals. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/world/middleeast/15iran.html?_r=1&ref=world


Iranians Heat Up Post-election Protests - Iason Athanasiadis, Washington Times. Protesters chanting "God is great" grew angrie
r in Tehran and other cities Sunday as incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted that he had won re-election fairly and police arrested more than 100 opposition supporters. The regime mobilized thousands of Ahmadinejad supporters for a counterdemonstration in central Tehran's Vali Asr Square - the scene of anti-Ahmadinejad riots Saturday - to cheer the president and lambaste his opponents, the West and its media. "We don't want an American [backed] revolution," demonstrators shouted as they walked down a traffic overpass to join a sea of Ahmadinejad supporters waving red, green and white Iranian flags. "Dea th to those against the Spiritual Leader" was another slogan, alongside "Mousavi bye-bye," in a taunting retort to supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi who had shouted "Mahmoud bye-bye" a few days before the Friday elections. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/world/middleeast/15iran.html?_r=1&ref=world


Iran Tries to Put a Lid on Election Protests - Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times. Iran's capital erupted in violence and civil disobedience for a second day Sunday, as protesters angered by what they consider rampant vote fraud in Friday's presidential election hurled rocks, set fire to storefronts and shouted anti-government slogans. As security forces fought off the demonstrators, an assertive President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended his government- certified victory as the legitimate will of the people and derided the demonstrators as unimportant. Ahmadinejad, speaking at a news conference, likened his detractors to angry soccer fans who commit a traffic violation leaving the stadium after a match. "He's going to be fined, but he's still a citizen of this country," he said. Afterward, Ahmadinejad appeared before a massive rally in Tehran's Vali Asr square, where thousands of supporters waved red, white and green Iranian flags and banners with religious slogans. Ahmadinejad suggested that he would not change course on major foreign and domestic issues that have made him a lightning rod20for criticism from the West. He repeated his willingness to "debate" President Obama publicly at the United Nations and downplayed international concerns about Iran's nuclear research program, which Western nations believe is aimed at developing nuclear weapons and Iran says is for civilian purposes. Ahmadinejad also rejected the possibility of an American or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran-election15-2009jun15,0,1529351.story


Ahmadinejad Hails Controversial Victory, Despite Protests - Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began to consolidate his controversial reelection victory on Sunday, as violent protests wracked Tehran for a second day and the defeated challenger called for results to be annulled. As street clashes picked up after dark between riot police and supporters of Mir Hussein Mousavi - the former prime minister who won just half the votes of Ahmadinejad, according to official figures - a new protest began to gather pace. Iranians from the street- and then an increasing number from the windows and rooftops of their apartment buildings- shouted "God is Great!" and "Death to the dictator!" long into the night. That protest signified the depth of anger over the surprise election result. The same tactic was used in Iran 30 years ago to show popular displeasure with the pro-West Shah Reza Pahlavi before he was overthrown by the 1979 Islamic Revolution. "It's all spontaneous, and that's a negative, [because] all things without a leader will go down," said a veteran analyst after a walk on the streets. Mr. Mousavi has not appeared in public since voting day on Friday, though in a Web statement on Sunday he said: "I urge you, Iranian nation, to continue your nationwide protests in a peaceful and legal way." http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0614/p06s20-wome.html


Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Disputed Victory Crushes Reform Hopes in Iran - Martin Fletcher, The Times. Violence erupted again on the streets of Tehran last night after tens of thousands of supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad poured into the capital to celebrate his disputed victory in Friday’s presidential election. Hours after Mr Ahmadinejad boasted of his “epic achievement” to a huge rally in Tehran’s biggest square, swarms of basiji - the regime’s young paramilitary volunteers - engaged in battles with opposition supporters, who say that the President stole the election through blatant fraud. A succession of Western governments challenged the election results. Joe Biden, the US Vice-President, said there was an awful lot of doubt about Mr Ahmadinejad’s victory over Mir Hossein Mousavi by a 28 per cent margin. France condemned the “brutal reaction” of the security forces who rampaged across Tehran all weekend, using baton charges, teargas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse incensed Mousavi supporter s and Germany has summoned the Iranian ambassador to explain events after the election. Elsewehre, Afghanistan and Iraq issued their congratulations to Mr Ahmadinejad. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6498787.ece


Iran's Ahmedinejad Addresses Supporters as Opposition Protests - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed thousands of flag-waving supporters at a victory rally to celebrate being officially proclaimed winner of Friday's election, despite widespread accusations of fraud. Supporters waving colored flags and banners turned out in Tehran's Vali Asr square for an election victory rally by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. Mr. Ahmedinejad thanked the Iranian people for choosing him, against what he called "a united front of world arrogance and psychological war launched by the enemy." At the same time al-Arabiya TV reported that Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sanei, who is a reformist cleric, had issued a religious edict proclaiming that Mr. Ahmedinejad was "not the president and that it is forbidden to cooperate with his government." http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-14-voa13.cfm


US Withholds Judgment on Iran Election Results - Michael Bowman, Voice of America. US Vice President Joe Biden says he is withholding judgment on Iran's presidential election, as protests continue in Tehran over election results showing a landslide re-election victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Vice President Joe Biden says the United States has questions and doubts as to whether Iran's presidential vote was free and fair. "Is this the accurate response we are getting? Is this the result of the Iranian people's wishes? The hope is that the Iranian people - all their votes have been counted, and they have been counted fairly," said Biden, speaking on NBC's Meet the Press program. "But, look, we just do not know enough [to make that judgment]." http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-14-voa15.cfm


Muted Response Reflects US Diplomatic Dilemma - Scott Wilson, Washington Post. The confused aftermath of Iran's presidential election is complicating the Obama administration's planned outreach to the Islamic republic and underscoring the challenges facing the president's new approach to the Middle East based on shared values and common interests. The administration has remained as quiet as possible during the Iranian election season and in the days of street protests since Friday's vote. Incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been declared the winner over his more reform-minded opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, by a margin that opposition supporters have found impossible to believe. As the Iranian government cracked down on public demonstrations and reportedly detained dozens of opposition leaders, Vice P resident Biden said yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he had "doubts" about the election returns but that "we're going to withhold comment" until a more intensive review takes place in the coming days. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/14/AR2009061402684.html?hpid=topnews


Biden Questions Vote but Sticks to Policy on Iran - Eric Schmitt, New York Times. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. cast doubt Sunday on the legitimacy of the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, but reaffirmed the administration’s intent to try to engage the Iranian government. “It sure looks like the way they’re suppressing speech, the way they’re suppressing crowds, the way in which people are being treated, that there’s some real doubt” about the result, Mr. Biden said. But the vice president made clear that despite the uncertainty surrounding Mr. Ahmadinejad’s contested victory, the United States would not abandon its Iran policy. “The decision has been made to talk,” Mr. Biden said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Our interests are the same before the election as after the election, and that is we want them to cease and desist from seeking a nuclear weapon and having one in its possession and, secondly, to stop supporting terror.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/world/middleeast/15diplo.html?ref=world


Obama Administration Watches Iran, Waits - Christina Bellantoni and Eli Lake, Washington Times. Iran's disputed presidential election poses additional challenges to the Obama administration, which has stressed diplomacy as its preferred means to deal with Tehran's nuclear ambitions. With tens of thousands of Iranians taking to the streets in protest, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. expressed doubts that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was legitimately re-elected to the presidency in Friday's vote. "There's an awful lot of questions about the way this election was done," he said Sunday. But Mr. Biden also indicated that the White House was willing to pursue nuclear negotiations with Iran, regardless of how the election dispute plays out.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/15/obama-administration-watches-waits-to-talk/


Iran's Election Results Stoke Global Debate - Jay Solomon and Chip Cummins, Wall Street Journal. US and European governments questioned the results of Iran's presidential vote, but said they would continue to seek direct talks with Tehran on its nuclear program. The Iranian government cracked down on violent protests in the capital for a second day on Sunday, after the Interior Ministry announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had w on the presidential election, beating his leading opponent, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mr. Mousavi and his supporters have rejected the results, alleging election-tampering by backers of Mr. Ahmadinejad, who rejects the charge. Some Middle East democracy activists said they worried that Washington, with its response so far, risked legitimizing Mr. Ahmadinejad's re-election and undermining what they described as a growing reformist movement inside Iran, fueled by the recent election campaigns. These activists and some former US diplomats urged President Barack Obama to publicly challenge Mr. Ahmadinejad's victory to show support for those seeking change in Iran. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124499485944713205.html#mod=article-outset-box


EU Voices Concern on Iranian Post-Election Violence - Voice of America. The European Union is voicing concern about Iran's crackdown on demonstrators protesting the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A statement Sunday from the Czech EU presidency also expressed hope the outcome of the election will not hinder dialogue on Iran's nuclear program. It says the EU expects the new Iranian government to respect its international obligations. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the crackdown on Iranian protesters unacceptable. He also said the landslide victory reported by election authorities for the incumbent president raises questions of irregularities that require "a comprehensive explanation." France also voiced concern, with a close advisor to President Nicolas Sarkozy Henri Guaino saying "what is happening in Iran is not good news for anyone." http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-14-voa10.cfm


The Power Behind Ahmadinejad's Disputed Win: Ayatollah Khamenei - Tony Karon, Time. Despite the convulsions in Tehran's streets in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election, Iranians - and the smart folks in Washington - know that Iran's presidency is not the seat of executive power. Unelected mullahs hold veto power over the decisions of the elected government, and their Supreme Leader, currently Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, must approve all political policies and make the key foreign policy and security decisions. No one can run for president without the approval of the clerics, and they routinely narrow the field to those deemed acceptable within the parameters of the Islamic Revolution. Still, the presidency is far from unimportant. It is a critical part of the "managed democracy" that the ruling clerics have used to govern Iran for the last three decades. Khamenei himself is a former President. The job is important enough to have brought millions of Iranians to the polls on Friday, and thousands into the streets afterwards - both supporters of the apparent loser, reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, and members of the radical volunteer paramilitary forces who support the reelected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1904589,00.html


Iran’s Leader Emerges With a Stronger Hand - Bill Keller and Michael Slackman, New York Times. The jokes among Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s detractors are legion. In one, he looks in the mirror and says, “Male lice to the right, female lice to the left.” In the West, one American tabloid rarely misses a chance to refer to him as “Evil Madman” and in the days before his re-election here he was taunted as a “monkey” and as a “midget.” But the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was announced winner of a second four-year term this week is no cartoon character. Whether his 63 percent victory is truly the will of the people or the result of fraud, it demonstrated that Mr. Ahmadinejad is the shrewd and ruthless front man for a clerical, military and political elite that is more unified and emboldened than at any time since the 1979 revolution. As president, Mr. Ahmadinejad is subordinate to the country’s true authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who commands final say over all matters of state and faith. With this election, Mr. Khamenei and his protégé appear to have neutralized for now the reform forces that they saw as a threat to their power, political analysts said. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/world/middleeast/15assess.html?_r=1&ref=world


Neither Real Nor Free - New York Times editorial. There is no transparency or accountability in Iran, so we may never know for sure what happened in the presidential election last week. But given the government’s even more than usually thuggish reaction, it certainly looks like fraud. Although a runoff was widely expected between the two top vote-getters, the polls had barely closed before authorities declared victory for the hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And it was a landslide: 62.6 percent versus just less than 34 percent for the main challenger, Mir Hussein Moussavi. We understand why so many Iranians found that impossible to believe. Mr. Moussavi had drawn hugely enthusiastic crowds to his campaign rallies, and opposition polls suggested that he, not Mr. Ahmadinejad, was the one with the commanding lead. Even more improbably, and cynically, authorities claimed that Mr. Ahmadinejad carried all of his opponents’ hometowns - including Mr. Moussavi’s - by large margins. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/opinion/15mon1.html?ref=opinion


Neither Free nor Fair - Washington Post editorial. No one outside the inner precincts of Iran's power structure knows who won that country's presidential election Friday. It's possible that a majority voted to reelect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as he claims. It's also possible, as much of his opposition fervently believes, that the election was stolen. What we can say for certain is that the election was neither free nor fair. When a regime peremptorily chooses which candidates can run; shutters newspapers, Web sites and television bureaus; silences text messaging; and throws critics into prison - such a regime should not expect its pronouncements on election results to garner any respect. So, as a first step, the Obama administration should take care not to signal more respect for those results than they merit. Administration officials are right to be responding cautiously and to let the process play out. But there are principles that the administration could be defending even now, squarely supporting the rule of law and democratic expression in Iran. The United States could make clear that a government wanting to be taken seriously by the international community should not use violence against peaceful protests, arrest opposition leaders and their followers, jam radio broadcasts, or block Internet use. It could call for a transparent process to address opposition claims of fraud. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/14/AR2009061402399.html


The Iranian Rebellion - Wall Street Journal editorial. Even sham elections can sometimes produce real results. That was the lesson of the Philippines in 1986 and of Ukraine in 2004. And though Friday's election in Iran is unlikely to yield a similar democratic outcome anytime soon, the poll matters for having again revealed the nature of mullah rule - to the Iranians who cast=2 0ballots expecting they'd be counted, and to a world that finds its illusions about Iranian democracy shattered. The election was a sham thrice over. Though elected by popular vote, Iran's president is subservient to an unelected Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The four candidates whose names made it on the presidential ballot this year were pre-screened by an unelected Guardian Council composed mostly of Islamic clerics, which also disqualified more than 400 others. What's remarkable is that these leaders still felt the need to rig the results. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by a two-to-one reported margin over principal challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi despite having driven the Iranian economy into a ditch. As the Associated Press reported, election authorities were miraculously able to count millions of paper ballots almost immediately after the polls closed to hand Mr. Ahmadinejad his supposed victory. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124501928874713539.html#mod=article-outset-box


Tehran Spring - The Times editorial. Zealots take fright when their zealotry is challenged. Within hours of the polls closing in Iran's turbulent election, the clerical establishment declared President Ahmadinejad the winner - not just by a credible razor-thin majority but by an absurd and falsified two thirds of the vote. The attempt to impart a veneer of democratic legitimacy to a regime widely hated for its authoritarian intolerance, eco nomic incompetence and corruption backfired. Open debate, demonstrations and pro-Western chants revealed a polarised society, an angry middle class and a younger generation yearning for freedom. If the Islamist revolution was to be preserved, this had to be stopped. And it was, swiftly and brutally. Few Iranians can be surprised. For a few brief weeks of the Tehran spring, the hardliners saw where free expression could lead. They saw women flouting the rules on clothing, men and women mingling, dancing in the squares, placards denouncing dictatorship and broadcasts revealing the lies and corruption of state officials. Little wonder that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, saw the unravelling of clerical power. Little wonder that the religious police, kept in check while foreign journalists reported the brief flirtation with democracy, were sent in with their truncheons to scatter the crowds and their hopes. Little wonder that the polling stations, under the control of the incumbent President, were ordered to return such obvious lies as the heavy defeat of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main opposition challenger, in his own village. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6499035.ece


Ahmadinejad's 'Victory' a Disaster - Daily Telegraph editorial. Poor Iran. It suffers from being a pseudo-democracy in which voters' hopes are raised by a choice of candidates to parliament and the presidency, only to be thwarted by an unelected clerical source of power. This was painfully clear in elections to the Majlis in 2000, when reformists swept the board but were then shackled by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the revolutionary apparatus of the so-called "guardianship of the jurisprudent". Expectations were even higher in the presidential poll on Friday, when, after a campaign marked by sharp television debates and huge rallies, Mir-Hossein Mousavi appeared to have good chance of beating the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or at least of forcing him into a second round. Results announced yesterday were a bitter disappointment: the electoral commission gave Mr Ahmadinejad nearly 63 per cent of the vote and his main challenger nearly 34 per cent. The surprisingly poor showing of Mr Mousavi in the capital, Tehran, and in his northwestern heartland of Tabriz suggests that the figures have been cooked. He called the result a "dangerous charade". However, Mr Ahmadinejad's re‑election was praised as a "real feast" by Ayatollah Khamenei. And it is there - backed, if necessary, by the brute force of the Revolutionary Guards - that ultimate power lies. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/5526410/Ahmadinejads-victory-is-a-disaster-for-Iran-and-the-world.html


Disappointing Result - The Australian editorial. Whether the election was rigged or not, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide win was deeply disappointing for the prospects of peace. If, as appears likely, Mr Ahmadinejad or his backers cheated, then the election was exactly what challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi is claiming - a dangerous charade that could bring tyranny to Iran. On the other hand, if the result is a true reflection of Iranian sentiment, it is a disturbing sign that much of the nation has embraced Mr Ahmadinejad's extremism and queued for hours in scorching sun to cast their votes to prove it. The election, which attracted a record 85 per cent turnout among the 46 million voters, was not monitored by international observers. A serious question mark must linger over the result, given Mr Ahmadinejad's cryptic comment even before ballot boxes opened that he had "information" that his opponents had "found out" they had lost. And pre-polling of 5000 voters conducted for the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and seen by The Sunday Times also raises concerns. It suggested that Mr Mousavi was on track to win at least 58 per cent of votes across Iran. The official result gave him just under 34 per cent. Whatever the underlying sentiment for greater freedom in Iran, the authorities' hardline crackdown on protesters post-election shows how any "velvet revolution" will struggle to gain traction, despite the aspirations of many liberals.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25635194-16382,00.html


Iran's Clarifying Election - Amir Taheri, Wall Street Journal opinion. Having won re-election amid allegations of fraud, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday tried to show that he also controlled the streets where the Khomeinist regime first seized power in the 1979 revolution. The show was less than impressive. Despite efforts by the Ansar Hezbollah (Militants of the Party of God) and security services to manufacture a large crowd, the massive Maydan Vali-Asr (Hidden Imam Square) was unfilled. The official news agency put the number at "several hundred thousands" while eyewitnesses reported tens of thousands. Even then, scuffles broke out on the fringes of the crowd as groups of dissidents tried to force their way in with cries of "Marg bar diktator!" (death to the dictator). That slogan may be on its way to replacing the normal greeting of salaam (peace) in parts of urban Iran. No one knows exactly how much electoral fraud took place. The entire process was tightly controlled by the Ministry of Interior under Sadeq Mahsouli, a general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and a senior aide to Mr. Ahmadinejad. There was no independent election commission, no secret balloting, no observers to supervise the counting of the votes, and no mechanism for verification. It is impossible to know how many people voted and for whom. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124502114089613711.html#mod=article-outset-box


Tehran is Running Scared of the Uncontrollable Forces of Freedom - Martin Fletcher, The Times opinion. Iran seldom admits the international media. It makes an exception at election times because it wants the world to see the Islamic republic's glorious democracy in action. Thus some 400 foreign journalists and television crews were given ten-day visas to cover Friday's presidential election, and for a week we really did see a vibrant and impressive democratic process. Admittedly the four candidates were handpicked by the regime, but they ranged from the liberal to ultra-conservative, offered starkly contrasting visions for the future and engaged in remarkably outspoken TV debates. The people responded. Armies of supporters took over the streets, festooned every square with posters and banners and, on election day itself, flocked to the polling stations in numbers that shamed most Western democracies. The charade ended abruptly on Friday night. Scarcely had polling ended than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cronies in the Interior Ministry and Elections Commission declared him the winner. They gave him not a razor-thin victory, which might just have been credible - the President did have legions of diehard supporters among the pious and rural poor. They gave him nearly two thirds of the vote, a figure that defied belief and raised two unmistakable fingers to the Iranian people and the world. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6498826.ece


Mr. President, Another Speech Please - Stephen F. Hayes, Weekly Standard opinion. Barack Obama should give another speech. Soon, maybe tomorrow. He should address this one to the people of Iran, whose eagerness for a political voice – a real political voice – is obvious in the photographs and reports from the streets of Tehran in the last 24 hours. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s supposedly decisive victory over Mir Hussein Moussavi is almost certainly fraudulent. Most reports over the final week of the campaign suggested that either Moussavi would win outright, by earning more than 50 percent of the votes cast, or that he and Ahmadinejad would go head-to-head in a second election next week. Instead, Iran’s Interior Ministry claims that Ahmadinejad won some 63 percent of the vote to Moussavi’s 34 percent. Unlikely. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs put out a rather limp statement early Saturday afternoon: “Like the rest of the world, we were impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that this election generated, particularly among young Iranians. We continue to monitor the entire situation closely, including reports of irregularities.” Shouldn’t the United States government be doing more than monitoring irregularities? http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/06/mr_president_another_speech_pl.asp


Iran’s Day of Anguish - Roger Cohen, New York Times opinion. Within two hours of the closing of the polls, contrary to prior practice and electoral rules, the Interior Ministry, through the state news agency, announced a landslide victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose fantastical take on the world and world history appears to have added another fantastical episode. Throughout the country, across regions of vast social and ethnic disparity, including Azeri areas that had indicated strong support for Moussavi (himself an Azeri), Ahmadinejad’s margin scarcely wavered, ending at an official 62.63 percent. That’s 24.5 million votes, a breathtaking 8 million more than he got four years ago. No tally I’ve encountered of Ahmadinejad’s bedrock support among the rural and urban poor, religious conservatives and revolutionary ideologues gets within 6 million votes of that number. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/15/opinion/15iht-edcohen.html?ref=opinion


The Iranian People Speak - Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty, Washington Post opinion. The election results in Iran may reflect the will of the Iranian people. Many experts are claiming that the margin of victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the result of fraud or manipulation, but our nationwide public opinion survey of Iranians three weeks before the vote showed Ahmadinejad leading by a more than 2 to 1 margin - greater than his actual apparent margin of victory in Friday's election. While Western news reports from Tehran in the days leading up to the voting portrayed an Iranian public enthusiastic about Ahmadinejad's principal opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, our scientific sampling from across all 30 of Iran's provinces showed Ahmadinejad well ahead. Independent and uncensored nationwide surveys of Iran are rare. Typically, preelection polls there are either conducted or monitored by the government and are notoriously untrustworthy. By contrast, the poll undertaken by our nonprofit organizations from May 11 to May 20 was the third in a series over the past two years. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/14/AR2009061401757.html