Iran Election Update

For up to the minute updates about the protests in Iran:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html

http://iran.twazzup.com/?q=%23iranelection

http://niacblog.wordpress.com/

CNN has 24 hour coverage this weekend

Battle w/ Police - Tehran, Iran - June 20th 2009
by mightier-than

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/world/middleeast/14iran.html

Protests Roil Tehran After Disputed Vote

TEHRAN — The streets of Iran’s capital erupted in the most intense protests in a decade on Saturday, with riot police officers using batons and tear gas against opposition demonstrators who claimed that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had stolen the presidential election.

Witnesses reported that at least one person had been shot dead in clashes with the police in Vanak Square in Tehran. Smoke from burning vehicles and tires hung over the city late Saturday.

The Interior Ministry said Saturday afternoon that Mr. Ahmadinejad had won 62.6 percent of the vote, with Mir Hussein Moussavi, the top challenger, taking just under 34 percent. Turnout was a record 85 percent.

Mr. Moussavi, a former prime minister who had promised to reverse Mr. Ahmadinejad’s hard-line policies, declared himself the winner by a wide margin Friday night, charged widespread election irregularities and called on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, to intervene.

The landslide victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad, an intensely divisive figure here and abroad, came as a powerful shock to opposition supporters, who had cited polls showing that Mr. Moussavi had a strong lead in the final days of the campaign.

Interior Minister Sadegh Mahsouli said Saturday that such a lead was a misimpression based on Mr. Moussavi’s higher levels of support in the capital, and that he had less backing elsewhere.

Mr. Moussavi made clear in statements on Saturday that he rejected the results and called on supporters and fellow clerics to fight them. But there were no reports of any public appearances by him through the day, leading to rumors that he might have been arrested.

In a statement posted on his campaign Web site, Mr. Moussavi said: “Today the people’s will has been faced with an amazing incident of lies, hypocrisy and fraud. I call on my Iranian compatriots to remain calm and patient.”

But Ayatollah Khamenei closed the door to any appeals for intervention in a statement issued on state television on Saturday afternoon, congratulating Mr. Ahmadinejad on his victory and pointedly urging the other candidates to support him.

In a televised address to the nation Saturday night, Mr. Ahmadinejad called on the public to respect the results, and he denounced foreign diplomatic and journalistic criticism.

“All political and propaganda machines abroad and sections inside the country have been mobilized against the nation,” he said.

Mr. Moussavi’s defiance seemed to fuel street resistance by his supporters — a coalition including women, young people, intellectuals and members of the moderate clerical establishment — who had united in opposition to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s erratic economic stewardship, confrontational foreign policy and crackdown on social freedoms.

“Death to the coup d’état!” chanted a surging crowd of several thousand protesters, many of whom wore Mr. Moussavi’s signature bright green campaign colors, as they marched in central Tehran on Saturday afternoon. “Death to the dictator!”

Farther down the street, clusters of young men hurled rocks at a phalanx of riot police officers, and the police used their batons to beat back protesters. There were reports of demonstrations in other major Iranian cities as well.

The authorities closed universities in Tehran, blocked cellphone transmissions and access to Facebook and some other Web sites, and for a second day shut down text-messaging services.

As night settled in, the streets in northern Tehran that recently had been the scene of pre-election euphoria were lit by the flames of trash fires and blocked by tipped trash bins and at least one charred bus. Young men ran through the streets throwing paving stones at shop windows, and the police pursued them.

Earlier in the day, hurried meetings were reported among Iran’s leading political figures and clerics; some were said to be trying to influence Ayatollah Khamenei to intervene in a situation that could stain public confidence in the integrity of Iran’s elections.

But Saeed Leylaz, an economist and political analyst, said he believed that Ayatollah Khamenei’s statement would bring a resolution, even if demonstrations persisted for a few days. “This has put an end to political negotiations from above,” Mr. Leylaz said.

For the moment, Ayatollah Khamenei’s admonition did nothing to calm the opposition’s rage.

“The results of the 10th presidential election are so ridiculous and so unbelievable that one cannot write or talk about it in a statement,” said Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist cleric and candidate.

Mr. Karroubi came in last with 300,000 votes — far fewer than analysts had predicted. “It is amazing that the people’s vote has turned into an instrument for the government to stabilize itself,” he said.

The other candidate, Mohsen Rezai, got 680,000 votes, Interior Ministry officials said.

In 2005, when Mr. Karroubi was also a candidate for president, he accused the government of rigging the vote in Mr. Ahmadinejad’s favor. In that election, the government announced when polls closed that there would probably be a runoff between two of three candidates, a reform candidate and a former police chief.

But by 7 a.m. the next day, a spokesman for the Guardian Council, a clerical oversight panel that is not supposed to be involved in vote counting, announced that Mr. Ahmadinejad was in first place. Mr. Karroubi’s charges were never investigated.

The turmoil on Saturday followed an extraordinary night in which the Iranian state news agency announced that Mr. Ahmadinejad had won by a vast margin just two hours after the polls closed. The timing alone provoked deep suspicion here, because the authorities have never before announced election results until the following morning. Mr. Moussavi also announced Friday night that he believed he had won by a wide margin.

Mr. Moussavi also complained about irregularities and unfairness in the election, saying there had been a lack of ballots in many areas and that some of his campaign offices had been attacked and his Web sites shut down.

The official results prompted further skepticism, in part because Mr. Ahmadinejad was said to have won by large margins even in his opponents’ hometowns. Mr. Rezai’s hometown, for example, gave him less than a tenth of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s total there, the Interior Ministry said.

The issue of vote-rigging has often been raised in Iranian elections, but analysts have generally said the authorities can manipulate the results by only a few percentage points, leaving room for genuine democratic movements.

Iran’s clerical leaders often point to past reformist victories as proof of the Islamic Republic’s democratic legitimacy. Many reformists have boycotted votes in the past to avoid giving the clerics that satisfaction. Those reformists voted in large numbers this time, inspired by a vast popular movement that rose up to support Mr. Moussavi.

Their bitterness on Saturday at the unexpected results was correspondingly severe.

“We are not disposable things to be thrown away,” said Mahshid, 20, a student who declined to give her last name because she feared repercussions from the authorities. “From now on, we won’t vote. They have insulted our feelings of patriotism.”

Meanwhile, the working-class areas of southern Tehran where Mr. Ahmadinejad is popular were largely quiet, despite rumors of wild victory celebrations.

“There might be some manipulation in what the government has done,” said Maliheh Afrouz, 55, a supporter of Mr. Ahmadinejad clad in a black chador. “But the other side is exaggerating, making it seem worse than it really is.”

Khodafez -- Farwell

Iran Election Report

This is also from Press TV. Does this news excite you? Are there problems with the poll? What else strikes you about this report?

-Amir

Ahmadinejad tops Iran's pre-election polls

Mon, 04 May 2009 17:14:36 GMT

Iran's incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has emerged as the country's favorite followed by Mir-Hossein Mousavi in a pre-election survey.

According to an opinion poll carried out in 32 Iranian cities, 53.6% favor President Ahmadinejad as their chief executive while some 21.9% are set to vote for Mousavi.

About 3.8% of the respondents in cities except other than Tehran have made their decision to vote for Reformist Mehdi Karroubi and some 1.7% will vote for independent candidate Mohsen Rezaei.

Approximately 23.7% of the respondents in the Iranian capital will vote for the incumbent Principlist president while some 14.3% will pick Mousavi as president.

According to the nation-wide poll, 57.2% from Iranian cities will vote in the country's June 12 presidential elections and 21.9% will abstain from voting.

While 50.1% of the people of Tehran say they will vote, 30.6% will not vote.

Press TV Nuclear Report

Hello all. I hope your work on the final paper is going well. Below is the Press TV clip I showed you guys in class. I would like you to react to the different arguments made in the piece. Do you agree or disagree with the slant of the report?



-Amir

Final Paper Spring 09

Instructions: You must write a 3-5 page essay responding to one of the topics below. The essay must be double spaced, in 12 point Times New Roman font, with 1 inch margins. You must also have a cover page which will include your name, your student ID number, your blog screename, the number of the essay topic you are responding to, and the title of your essay. Additionally on the cover page you must also indicate which three postings you commented on in the blog (and any additional postings made to excuse absences etc…). Giving the title of the posting is enough. In order to pass this class you must complete three blog postings and this essay.

For the essays I want you to make a strong argument that you will support with evidence. Your argument must be made clear in your intro paragraph. You must also support every claim you make with a reference. (For example, you can’t just say a government is repressive without having something to back you up. Do this and you will fail!) You must cite an article from the reader at least once. You may also feel free to use any outside resource you please, except wikipedia. Citation can be done in a variety of ways, as long as it is consistent. However, you must include a bibliography at the end of your essay.

A hardcopy of your essay is due at the beginning of the final class session, May 7th 2009. E-mail copies will not be accepted! You may turn in the essay earlier if you please.

Topics:
1. Describe the system of concessions during the Qajar period in Iran. How did this impact the 1906 Constitutional Revolution?

2. Discuss how the U.S. government both benefited from, and was eventually repudiated for, the 1953 coup d'état against Mohammad Mossadegh. Be sure to include information regarding Cold War politics and how it legitimated the intervention.

3. Describe some of the events that contributed to the culmination of the Revolution of 1979. What inspired the Revolution? What components of the Shah’s program did people oppose?

4. “It was Iran against the world” is a statement that is constantly used to describe the Iran-Iraq war. To what extent is this true? Describe the support given to both Iran and Iraq during the war. Make sure to also discuss the controversy surrounding the Iran-Contra affair.

5. Describe the powers of the Supreme Leader. How have his actions colored the presidencies of Rafsanjani, Khatami, and Ahmadinejad?

6. Should Iran be allowed to continue its nuclear program? Keep in mind Iran’s domestic needs, its stated intentions, and the possible threats the program poses.

7. With the election of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States, a possible new era of Iran-U.S. relations has begun. What do you think will change, if anything? Is this good or bad?

8. The Iranian people will soon be voting to decide the next President of Iran. It is up to you to convince them to vote for the candidate of YOUR choice. Pick from among the already announced candidates the one that you feel is the best choice for the Iranian people. Provide your reasoning in both the domestic and international context. This is both academic and persuasive. Feel free to get a little creative.

9. Should Iran be an Islamic Republic? Why or why not? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this form of government versus the benefits and drawbacks of other forms of government? You may suggest alternative government styles, but you must also comment on their feasibility in the Iranian context.

10. Topic of your choice. You must have this approved by me before writing your essay. Either speak to me in class or shoot me an e-mail.

Feel free to talk to me about your essays. I am always here to answer your questions. Good luck!

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Hello class. The topic for this week was, of course, President Ahmadinejad. You guys definitely have some strong opinions about him.

You will need to comment on Ahmadinejad's letter to Americans. It is included in the reader.

Basically, as an American, or at least someone who currently resides here, what is your reaction to this letter? What would you like to say to him as a reply?

Also, as the Iranian election approaches, I became curious to see your feelings of him as a candidate. Would you vote for him?


-Amir