Economist Looks at the Iranian Election: Scores Reported Dead in Violence

Fascism, plain and simple





50-150 dead in violence.
To call it disputed it would be the understatement of the year. So far we have numerous reports of riots and crack downs as many in the country can't believe what has happened. The Economist reports:

IN A confused denouement to one of the more exciting political dramas since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, electoral authorities declared the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the likely victor in a fiercely fought contest for Iran’s presidency. His claim to a 65% landslide appeared to bury the hopes of the main challenger, Hosein Mousavi, a former prime minister and relative liberal whose campaign gained rapid momentum in its last days, inspiring huge, boisterous street demonstrations. The two other contenders trailed far behind in the official count, with barely 3% of the vote between them.

But all three challengers disputed the still-inconclusive result, which came as a crushing disappointment to the many Iranians dismayed by Mr Ahmadinejad’s religious conservatism, populist economics and combative foreign policy. Mr Mousavi’s camp, citing private opinion polls, had placed their candidate well in the lead as polls opened on Friday morning. Voting was extended into evening hours to accommodate a record turnout among the 46.2m registered voters, and shortly after polls closed Mr Mousavi called a press conference both to confirm his advantage “by a wide margin” and to protest alleged irregularities in the voting.

By early accounts Mousavi had been leading, but then its as if some magic reversal occurred and the hard liners swung into a dominant position. Considering how much energy had been built into the race this might be one of the worst outcomes, either a fascist coup to overturn the results or the vast majority of Iran really support Ahmadinejad. Pick your poison!

Sources close to Mr Mousavi’s campaign said that they awaited his decision whether to grudgingly bow to the result, or defiantly call for peaceful public protests. “This is a very dangerous situation,” said one, “we believe something like a coup d’etat has happened.” Such feelings, widespread among Mr Ahmadinejad’s critics, reflected suspicions that conservatives inside Iran’s “deep state”, and particularly within the interior ministry, which runs the election, and the Council of Guardians, an un-elected body of clerics that vets candidates and is tasked with supervising polls, had conspired to determine the outcome. A sarcastic statement from Mr Mousavi described the elections as a “conjuring trick.”

The electoral campaign had built up slowly, with the Guardian Council eliminating all but the four candidates, who were widely regarded as weak challengers to Mr Ahmadinejad. But it reached a tumultuous climax. In a first for Iran, the candidates paired off in televised debates that drew huge audiences and gasps when the politicians broke with decorum in a series of bitter, often personal exchanges. The sight of such unusually open dispute encouraged an outburst of enthusiasm from a public that had grown inured, under Mr Ahmadinejad, to a bland, adulatory media diet. Millions of Iranians took to the streets, many sporting green ribbons that became a symbol for Mr Mousavi’s campaign, and many declaring their determination to vote for the first time.

But the televised clashes also exposed deep splits within Iran’s ruling establishment. Mr Ahmadinejad accused all three challengers of ganging up on him, insinuating that they were in the pay of Hashemi Rafsanjani, a cleric and former president who is widely regarded as corrupt, but has long been a behind-the-scenes power broker. Mr Rafsanjani, a pragmatist conservative who has drifted closer to the reformist camp, retorted with a blunt letter to the Supreme Leader, accusing the president of lying, and of endangering Iran’s Islamic system of government.

Of course the real power behind the thrown is Supreme Leader Khamenei who has generally been supportive of Ahmadinejad and is unlikely to overturn this result. Now we wait and see.

For more on vote fraud allegations.

Confirmed, a fraud.

Images via flickr.

cnn ireport.

Soccer?

From CNN: