Major cheating and irregularities going on, they have even put up a wall in front of the Ministry of Interior. Ahmadinejad's gang might be cooking up something, so Mousavi has called an emergency press conference.
I am curious, if all this cheating is confirmed by Mousavi's people, what kind of effect will this have on the election process in Iran? Further, what will happen if this hampers or even prevents a win by Mousavi? Is this something that could become a catlyst for a bigger event? Not like the 79 revolution, but something that could push the country more towards a reformist ideology?
Both sides are claiming victory now, this is getting very confusing, with conflicting reports on both sides. Some of the state controlled media outlets have declared Ahmdinejad the winner, independent Iranian media are calling Mousavi the winner, and Mousavi has declared himself the winner and the next president, stating that any other result would mean election fraud.
The votes in this election have not been counted and these competing claims of victory are baseless. If voter turnout was 70% (the estimate now give) as opposed to the 80% which was expected before the polls opened, I am quite sure Mousavi will not have won a majority. The numbers just don't add up for Mousavi unless the participation rate is close to 80% or better. If participation rates approach or exceed 80%, then Mousavi would have the upperhand, but participation rates around 70% give Ahmadinejad the advantage. Anyway, I will wait for the actual results to be announced. For now, it seems Ahmadinejad is doing very strongly in those few areas were actual numbers are being reported, but we are talking about a small sample mostly from areas where Ahmadinejad was expected to do well.
This is ridiculous. Obama reaches out to Iran and Iran elects Ahmedinejad, which, like it or not does not have a favorable image in the West. If Iranians really want to restore diplomatic ties with the US, electing AN won't help maters. I know that AN has limited foreign policy influence bu electing an anti-AN candidate would have been symbolic for the West.
Majority of the people who vote for AN are villagers and the low to non educated part of the populous. They dont care about the west or anyone outside of their village for that matter.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wasted no time today declaring himself the winner even before the voting was complete - kind of reminds me of Al Gore in the 2000 election here in the states! Anyway... I am hoping that the will of the Iranian people is heard and Mousavi is elected; that might diffuse the Israel issue anyway... If Ahmadinejad is elected again I fear that Israel will retaliate against Ahmadinejad's reckless nuclear ambitions and rightly with good reason. Perhaps the Iranian people should collectively pause and be sure all the ballots are counted---not just the ones that say Ahmadinejad.
Yup. As I said earlier, AN does well with the poor/rural areas for his favorable policies directed at them but polls show that a strongg majority of Iranians favor restoring ties with the US (not Israel though) so one would extrapolate that a majorith of the voters would also want to make a choice that favors restoring those ties (and AN doesn't do that at all).
Those polls are very misleading. No one goes to the villages to ask people what kind of ties they want with the US, its always done in the cities where the more moderate Iranians reside. The villagers are still in the 'marg bar Amrika' mode, sadly.
One of the Iranian press agencies has apparently declared Ahmadinejad the winner. WIth half the votes counted, al Jazera shows Ahmadinejad with a big lead with half the votes counted and lots of accusations of fraud.
Yup. The cities is where the more educated, affluent Iranians are. I think the "marg bar Amrika is simply them regurgitating what the Iranian propaganda machine feeds them. That said, I do think that Iranians have legitimate concerns over US/Israel (the coup in 1953 still has wounds..kinda like the hostage crisis in 1979 does for the US) and obviously US support for Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war.
Just as I predicated Ahmadienjad wins . I am not surprised at all , it was expected and those people who actually thought Ahmadienjad was going to lose were noting thinking about the reality and the big picture.
I thought the "reality" was that there was significant turnout (which favors Mousavi) and there was significant support for reducing/ending Iranian isolation with the West. What factors do you think helped AN get reelected?
The lastest says that out of nearly 16 million ballots counted, Ahmadinejad has over 10 million under his belt. I would think that the votes from the "rural areas" may not have been counted yet. If that's the case then Mahmoud could win by 70%. There was a lot of noise and media coverage about Mosavi's campaign and his supporters but all that was focused around no more than 3-5 million in a couple of major cities.
You honestly thought the people who are running the show in Iran would allow a popular president like Ahmadienjad lose? Did you honestly think that the majority of Iranian who don’t live in Northern Tehran or other major cities would vote for a guy like Mousavi? The majority of Iranian don’t understand the implications of electing like a guy like AN, they will believe the propaganda that Ahmadienjad feeds them because they don’t know any better. Mani has been sitting here posting videos and photos of Mosusavi supporters in Northern Tehran but he underestimated the fact that most Iranian don’t think like the people he posted in his photos and videos.
A poll taken by Terror Free Tomorrow suggested Ahmadinejad would win rather comfortably, although that poll was taken a few weeks ago and before the "Mousavi mania" that gripped Tehran. Still, in order to put things in perspective and because all the Iranian polls were taken by groups affiliated to the candidates coming up with such desperate numbers, I will post what that poll showed: http://www.bi-me.com/main.php?id=37609&t=1&c=62&cg=4&mset
C'mon, are you serious? If that should really be the case, I'm absolutely speechless (actually you can only explain the currently huge lead of AN with the assumption that they started counting the rural votes first). If that's really true, the race should already be decided. However, it's very hard to believe that Mousavi got so few support after the latest reports. Something must have totally gone wrong there...
Ahmadinejad hasn't won anything, we are witnessing election rigging and vote manipulation, if these "results" stand, this would be a coup, as simple as that.
Wait a second. How do we go from everyone predicting a close election, and likely a runoff, to a AN blowout in the face of massive turnout? Sounds like fraud to me. Sigh.
Well, that wouldn't be very surprising ... but as long as evidence can't be provided, there's nothing what can be done. Let's wait up this morning. Buona notte.
Khamenei better step in and reign in Ahmdinejad and his fellow cheaters, or the Green Tsunami will rise tomorrow, and wash them all away.
The latest results are as follows: 26,122,777 votes counted: 1- Ahmadinejad: 15,913,256 2- Mousavi: 7,526,117 3- Rezaie: 470,549 4- Karrubi: 212,855 If turnout is 70%, there will be another 6 million votes or thereabouts to be counted. Depending on where those votes are from, and it seems they are from the larger cities, Ahmadinejad's lead will narrow (maybe even significantly) but he will nonetheless win.