Ahmadinejad defiant about result of Iranian election

wes

Jamari Damaged Tremor wrote: »

Has meaningful opposition demonstration taken place outside of Tehran? In any of the provinces, or rural areas, where I assume the majority of inhabitants are more likely to be alligned with Ahmadinejad and other 'hard-line' factions.

There have been demonstrations, but due the media black out that regime has organized, there is very little information beyond there being demonstrations.

I can't say either way if they were big or small due to this.

**EDIT**
Either way, the Iranian regime is doing itself no favors by not letting the media in. They are making themselves look bad.

wes

From Al Jazeera English:
Khamenei backs Iran vote outcome

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has said that the people have chosen who they want as president in the country's recent disputed poll.

Delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at Tehran University, Khamenei backed the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the president after the June 12 election.

"Candidates were put forward into public eye, everyone could judge for themselves ... they have identified the person they wanted," he said.

Khamenei refuted accusations of vote rigging, and insisted the poll was an "absolute and definitive victory".

Ruling out fraud behind Ahmadinejad's victory, he said "the Islamic establishment will never manipulate people's votes and commit treason.

"The legal structures and electoral regulations of this country do not allow vote rigging."

He said that any doubts concerning the results must be investigated through legal channels and called on supporters of defeated candidates to cease street protests, adding, "otherwise they will be responsible for its consequences, and consequences of any chaos".

Click here for full article

Well, looks like they are going to come down on the protesters now. The above comments from Khameni is a thinly veiled threat imho.

Lirange

Jamari Damaged Tremor wrote: »

Has meaningful opposition demonstration taken place outside of Tehran?

Protest rally at Imam Square in the Isfahan province capital.

wes

Lirange wrote: »

Protest rally at Imam Square in the Isfahan province capital.

That is a amazing image. Thanks for posting that.

mike65

Bomb gone off outside the tomb of the driving spirit of Islamic Revolution, the Ayatollah Khamenei.

jkforde

*** Mod edit: NSFW ***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbdEf0QRsLM


thanks mod!

Iskenderun

It's all very tragic. The political system shows a structural inflexibility
to encompass change. The result will be a political deep freeze until the
whole political system fractures and collapses.

RedPlanet

Iskenderun wrote: »

It's all very tragic. The political system shows a structural inflexibility
to encompass change. The result will be a political deep freeze until the
whole political system fractures and collapses.

"Structural inflexibility"
Not sure if i agree with that.
There is a structure in place where Mousavi can bring his grievence.
Do western countries provide better structure in this respect?
I'm not sure, I know they can contest election stuff in the court system in the USA for example. We all remember the US Supreme Court interferring with the ballot re-counting in Florida back in 2000.
Don't know the Iranian system in any detail so i can't really say if they have greater or lesser structures in place.
Are you suggesting that as a result of this disputed election, the Iranian's should invent other political and judicial structures to address these types of things?
Could well be the case, we don't know what the aftermath will bring.

But i doubt it results in a "political deep freeze" at all.
Rather i think it will aggravate the gulf and grievences between the Reformists and Conservative Alliance.

In the short-term, it may make the Reformists appear to be rather like traitors.

Sand

Do western countries provide better structure in this respect?

Yes.

Mousavi can only bring his grievance to the same people who have rigged the election for Ahmadinejad. Mousavi (or any other candidate) cannot even run without being approved by the same people who have rigged the election for Ahmadinejad. This is the weakness of the system - it does not allow or accomadate dissent so there are no saftey valves: if dissent runs out of control it turns into an all or nothing struggle.

Frighteningly enough Red, there are some parts of the world that are less great than the West in some minute aspect of culture/economy/rights/political system and freedoms.

Startling I know.

Iskenderun

Some thoughts on the election.
1. It is possible that Ahmadinejad did in fact win but not by a sufficient margin to prevent a runoff against Mousavi.
2. Therefore, the leadership decided to 'massage' the results to give Ahmadinejad outright victory.
3. However, this would surely involve the collusion of hundreds if not thousands of election officials. Iran is not a closed society and there are no reports so far of officials making public statements to this effect.
4. Mousavi has presented evidence to the leadership of possible vote rigging, but the nature of this evidence has not been made public as yet.
5. The bravery of those Iranians who have demonstrated in the face of state thuggery is to be applauded. I suspect that the demonstrators are not just venting their opposition to possible electoral fraud, but want real change. Something that Mir Hossein Mousavi may be unable to deliver.

mike65

Hossein Mousavi is riding the tiger alright, he has decided to confront the clerics as much as "Ahvhadmedinnerdad". Win or bust.

g5fd6ow0hseima

I was reading a very interesting opinion piece on aljazeera today regarding the position that the current regime faces. Should they commit a Tianenmen #2 and hope that they can contain unrest through one single measure before the situation becomes too hot to handle.

However, the author points out that unlike the Chinese in 1989, who could soften the populace through allowing cultural reform en masse, it is exactly this which the theocracy opposes. Basically, no concessions can be offered.

The people cant back down now, the world is on their side, the ball is in their court.

jonny72

Jamari Damaged Tremor wrote: »

I was reading a very interesting opinion piece on aljazeera today regarding the position that the current regime faces. Should they commit a Tianenmen #2 and hope that they can contain unrest through one single measure before the situation becomes too hot to handle.

However, the author points out that unlike the Chinese in 1989, who could soften the populace through allowing cultural reform en masse, it is exactly this which the theocracy opposes. Basically, no concessions can be offered.

The people cant back down now, the world is on their side, the ball is in their court.

I disagree, I think the regime can suppress dissent if they are clever enough. Burma did the same, brute force, it works.

jill_valentine

I don't think either China or Burma had to worry about quite the same degree of dissent in their own national security forces.

mike65

Ruling Council notes voting irregularities have occurred but says nothing to chnage result
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/22/iran.election/

stevedublin

mike65 wrote: »

Ruling Council notes voting irregularities have occurred but says nothing to chnage result
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/22/iran.election/

well thats that then.
End of.

jkforde

Iskenderun wrote: »

1. It is possible that Ahmadinejad did in fact win but not by a sufficient margin to prevent a runoff against Mousavi.

An academic has done an analysis of the provincial voting and has concluded that either the people have swung to Ahmadinejad in an unrealistic proportion or there was blatant fraud... will try to find a link to the story (heard on BBCWS NewsHour)

RedPlanet

CounterPunch has this analysis:
http://www.counterpunch.org/amin06222009.html
Debunking the conspiracy theorists.

Good article RP,
apparently ahmadinejad did very well in two televised debates (1st time happening) before the election too..he was giving out about corruption in the clergy..which could also explain some of the mullahs taking sides..

Came across this there..
Not to bang on about it, but..

Iskenderun

Some pictures from Iran.

wes

RedPlanet wrote: »

CounterPunch has this analysis:
http://www.counterpunch.org/amin06222009.html
Debunking the conspiracy theorists.

The article doesn't address, how more people managed to vote, than were registered in certain area's. Its a pretty big omission.

mike65

CQD I'm amused at your straight-faced credulity, you might as well have posted an indymedia rant.

jkforde

Iranian embassy in Dublin

Email: iranembassy@indigo.ie
Fax: 0035312834246

Please pass this around.

jkforde

jkforde wrote: »

Iranian embassy in Dublin

Email: iranembassy@indigo.ie
Fax: 0035312834246

Please pass this around.

Jeeze. Still rocking the indigo..

jkforde

Ha, same thought I had when I saw it.... thought it was with O'Leary in the grave!

wes

Neda – the tragic face of Iran's uprising

By Peter Popham
Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Joan of Arc she was not, nor the Unknown Protester who stopped the tanks in Tiananmen Square, because that young man, 20 years ago, chose his fate and his prominence, deliberately stepping out of the crowd into the tank's and the cameras' sights.

Not so Neda: the young Iranian woman whose quick, brutal death from a Basiji militia man's bullet during a demonstration on Saturday created the Iranian uprising's first figurehead chose nothing except to be there.

Having found the courage to come out on to the street, she may have quailed: video shot moments before her death show her and her companion looking on from the sidelines as demonstrators surge back and forth. Should they go back? Had they made a mistake coming? She was in jeans and headscarf, the uniform of the city's young women, aged 26 or 27, we understand, therefore under 30, like 60 per cent of Iran's population: a modern Iranian Everywoman. She worked at a travel agency, so she was connected with the great world every day.

---SNIP--

Yesterday the BBC's Farsi service reported that Neda's full name was Neda Agha-Soltan, and that she had been stuck in traffic in her car with her music teacher when she decided to get out "because of the heat" – "just for a few minutes", said her fiancé, Caspian Makan "[and] that's when she was shot dead".

Too much information already. The myth is more glorious without it.

click here for full article

An interesting article on Neda Agha-Soltan in the UK independent. I have to say the truth of her apparently not even being a protester, makes the whole thing even more tragic. All she did was get out of her car to get of the heat and was brutally murdered in the street. The Iranian regime have made a huge mistake by murdering there own people, they should know how important a symbol a martyr is in there culture, after all they are the ones who have been teaching there population to revere them. Hopefully, the person who murdered her will be brought to justice.

OK-Cancel-Apply

I haven't read ever post here, so I'd be grateful if someone could tell me straight out - what evidence is there to suggest the vote was rigged? That's not rhetorical...I really want a link! I've been trawling through the web but I've only been able to find articles which say the result was in doubt.

jkforde

OK-Cancel-Apply wrote: »

I haven't read ever post here, so I'd be grateful if someone could tell me straight out - what evidence is there to suggest the vote was rigged? That's not rhetorical...I really want a link! I've been trawling through the web but I've only been able to find articles which say the result was in doubt.

I heard a good interview on BBC Worldservice's NewsHour yesterday with an English academic who has crunched the provincial numbers and he basically admitted that it was blatant fraud based on his experience monitoring elections and voting around the world...

I'm trying to find a web link but it should appear here as a download in the near future:
http://tinyurl.com/nssffd

Anyhows, this is a bunch of clerics who have let power go to their heads.... nothing too surprising about that eh??

OK-Cancel-Apply

jkforde wrote: »

I heard a good interview on BBC Worldservice's NewsHour yesterday with an English academic who has crunched the provincial numbers and he basically admitted that it was blatant fraud based on his experience monitoring elections and voting around the world...

I'm trying to find a web link but it should appear here as a download in the near future:
http://tinyurl.com/nssffd

Anyhows, this is a bunch of clerics who have let power go to their heads.... nothing too surprising about that eh??

Thanks for that, but how far into the programme is this? 20 mins in now and so far I've only heard one guy slating the Western media for being biased and interviewing people mostly from one side!

He may have a point, considering Britain and America's actions in 1953! I hope most people here know about the CIA funded propaganda campaign against Mohammed Mosaddeq as part of Operation Ajax.

We all know the West really wanted Mousavi to win, and has it in for Ahmadinejad, so the current coverage is quite predictable I think.

Are there any text based links with evidence of rigging? Again, I know there is something so I'm really hoping someone can link me.