TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's state television says the supreme leader has ordered an investigation into claims of fraud in last week's presidential election.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is ordering the powerful Guardian Council to examine the allegations by pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims widespread vote rigging in Friday's election. The government declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner in a landslide victory.
It is a stunning turnaround for Iran's most powerful figure, who previously welcomed the results.
Mousavi wrote an appeal Sunday to the Guardian Council, a powerful 12-member body that's a pillar of Iran's theocracy. Mousavi also met Sunday with Khamenei.
Mousavi's backers have waged three days of street protests in Tehran.
Don't know what the outcome will be seeing how he has already "congratulated" Ahmadinejad on his win.
I wonder if this will play out like the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and they'll have international observers there on hand for a recount. The manner in which this went down seems pretty shoddy.
On June 16 2009 04:44 Hawk wrote: I wonder if this will play out like the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and they'll have international observers there on hand for a recount. The manner in which this went down seems pretty shoddy.
International observers seem very unlikely. They have a "probe" going on for the election right now (as ordered by the supreme leader) but the confidence in that is not too high.
On June 16 2009 02:29 iamtt1 wrote: i just spoke with my relatives, theyre saying the main problem has nothing to do with the election, the majority of the people dont even give a shit about mousavi, all they wanted was an event to spark something so everyone could get together, dont get me wrong.. right now theyre protesting against the election results but theyre hoping the riots escalade so they can go against the regime, the only problem is that the mullahs are a different type of animal, theyll just kill you if you defy them
Ohh... this post clarifies a lot of stuff. Now it all makes much more sense. Thanks for that.
"75 percent of the population live below the poverty line, 66 percent of women are victims of some form of domestic violence, and over 70 percent of women suffer from varying degrees of depression. Iran remains, in the words of UN Human Rights Rapporteur Maurice Copithorne, “a prison for women.” I think these make excellent voters.
The true power lies with the Ayatollah, but he's not chosen democratically is he?
On June 15 2009 23:09 Jibba wrote: The most ridiculous thing about this is Hezbollah's loss in Lebanon was a surprise to everyone, in a voting system that we know for a fact is unfair, yet there's barely any coverage of what went on or that those "dirty Islamists" peacefully accepted defeat. In Iran, where the expected happened, 200,000,000 unqualified sources have come out of nowhere to declare voter fraud.
Uhm, your point is a little strange.
Yes the Lebanon election was *nice* and *quiet*. That was in the news, the result is in the news... What shall the news agencies do? Create some stories about it just because they could? I bet you don't get big news coverage of swiss or other elections in small countries that went just fine and are not really important on a global scale/to your country?
Iran is more important to the west, it's way bigger, it's president is *controversal* (at best) and there are actually big scale demonstrations/riots happening.
Really strange that the news are more over Iran than over Libanon (a country that probably would never be mentionet in most media if not for it's neighbour Israel).
No offense, but comparing Lebanon to Switzerland (aside from all the money held in Swiss banks) is a bit of a stretch. Hezbollah still wields a large amount of power in the Middle East, and they ARE constantly a news item with regards to Israel. Their elections were actually fishy and nothing was said about it. That's my point.
EDIT: At the very least, this should prove to everyone that Iranians aren't Arabs. Arab women don't look like that.
On June 16 2009 02:29 iamtt1 wrote: i just spoke with my relatives, theyre saying the main problem has nothing to do with the election, the majority of the people dont even give a shit about mousavi, all they wanted was an event to spark something so everyone could get together, dont get me wrong.. right now theyre protesting against the election results but theyre hoping the riots escalade so they can go against the regime, the only problem is that the mullahs are a different type of animal, theyll just kill you if you defy them
This is actually really interesting if you're into social movement theory. In the past there's always some institution that facilitates organization and protest (ie. Church in Poland, religion in the first Iranian revolution, student volunteers in El Salvador, etc.) I'm sure universities are one of the main drivers here, but I wonder how large the internet footprint is on this movement.
It seems that the current structure of the Iranian government is doomed, whether they step up repression or not. I'm talking, of course, within a 5-10 year timeframe, and basing this off past modern social movements. Even if the election numbers are valid, 30% is a large enough minority that they can't simply be shut out and there's not much you can do to appease that group outside of the realm of politics (ie. improving the economy won't cut it.) And if I'm not mistaken, the % of people that would like to see a democratically elected Council is the vast majority.
# foreign news reported us on twitter - we have too much ppl looking at us - #Iranelection6 minutes ago from web
# motorbikes all over Tehran - outside now - they break windows of houses some have pepper gas - they want to scare ppl #Iranelection9 minutes ago from web
# we are routed thru mirror proxies - but service is unreliable - keeps cuting out - have to switch off lights now - #Iranelection11 minutes ago from web
# Gov hackers are on twitter now - we are getting threats - #Iranelection14 minutes ago from web
On June 16 2009 07:09 TeCh)PsylO wrote: Interesting that the "where is my vote" signs are in english?
They know how to work the media.
Who are "they"? It is not as if everyone protesting individually came to the same conclusion on how to play the media on this. I think it is to early to make any assumptions about what has happened with the election, but I think it would be fair to say that there is probably some level of undo influence coming from multiple avenues.
Hundreds of thousands went onto the streets today, protesting peacefully knowing very well the violence of the police and militias days earlier. Knowing very well they risk everything. Not knowing how many would show up. Not knowing the outside world would ever know about this. And this was all done peacefully and it was all self-organized. There is basically no functioning leadership. People protest spontaniously.
Western journalists are all gone. Only coverage right now is by Iranians themselves and western people with a tourist visa. What a failure by the international media. They know that when stuff gets ugly like this they kick out all people on journalist visas.
The whole world is amazed at the bravery of these people. Yet Xeris is ashamed at the instability? The ayatolla's aren't totalitarian? You got to be kidding. Ask your parents. You are supporting this shameful regime, the one you refuse to live under, and you speak out against your brave countrymen who are fighting your battle. Ahmadinejad ridiculed and provoked the protests. Now Khamenei is taking the possibility of fraud seriously forced by the people in the streets. He knows his regime is inherently unstable. He knows how totalitarian it is. Like all Iranians, Xeris, you should cry of happiness at this miracle. At the bravery of your people.
As for evidence of fraud. The turnout was 85%. So many new voters. We know for a fact these people don't support the conservatives. Elections don't have much integrity in Iran. Even Mousavi is a questionable candicate. That's why he was even allowed to run. Therefore, many people never vote. But they did vote this time. And they basically forced Mousavi to protest. If the council had known beforehand this would happen Mousavi wouldn't have been allowed to be a candicate. So yes, all these new voters voting for Ahmadinejad is very hard to believe. These new voters have all largely been boycotting all previous elections because they want democratic elections.
The other two candidates are also calling for a fraud. These candidates, one of them another conservative, also all have their own estimates. And it's way off from the actual results. Rezaee estimates his votes between 3 and 6 million. Yet he only got like 600000.
There is also stuff leaking right now from the Internal Ministery. Some of these leaked documents say Mousavi got 20 million votes and Ahmadinejad only 8 million. We don't know the actual result and Ahmadinejad very well could still have more supporters. But such a big victory from Mousavi is also a possibility.
Fact is those in power fear these protests. They fear the media coverage. They are trying everything in their power to stop what is happening.
EPT
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