Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Jerusalem Post

By SABINA AMIDI

After weeks of excitement and fervor, it is all over. The numbers are in and incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has won a “landslide” victory in the Iranian presidential elections.

But the very margin of his victory - a two-thirds to one-third margin in Ahmadinejad’s favor - has left many questioning the authenticity of the “democratic” elections, since the run-up to Friday’s vote suggested a tight race between Ahmadinejad and the leading reformist candidate, former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Mousavi supporters clashed with police and set up barricades of burning tires as authorities declared that Ahmadinejad had been re-elected in a landslide. Opponents responded with the most serious unrest in the capital in a decade and charges that the result was the work of a “dictatorship.”

The clashes in central Teheran were the more serious disturbances in the capital since student-led protests in 1999 and showed the potential for the showdown over the vote to spill over into further violence and challenges to the Islamic establishment.

Several hundred demonstrators - many wearing the trademark green colors of Mousavi’s campaign - chanted “the government lied to the people” and gathered near the Interior Ministry as the final count was announced. It gave 62.6 percent of the vote to Ahmadinejad and 33.75 to Mousavi, who served as prime minister in the 1980s and has become the hero of a youth-driven movement seeking greater liberties and a gentler face for Iran abroad.

The turnout was a record 85 percent of Iran’s 46.2 million eligible voters. Two other candidates received only a fraction of the vote.

Protesters set fire to tires outside the Interior Ministry and anti-riot police fought back with clubs and smashed cars. An Associated Press photographer saw a plainclothes security official beating a woman with his truncheon.

In another main street of Teheran, some 300 young people blocked the avenue by forming a human chain and chanted “Ahmadi, shame on you. Leave the government alone.”

Mousavi’s campaign headquarters urged people to show self-restraint.

Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli, who supervised the elections and heads the nation’s police forces, warned people not to join any “unauthorized gatherings.” Earlier, the powerful Revolutionary Guard said it would not tolerate any challenges by Mousavi’s “green” movement - the color adopted by Mousavi’s campaign.

“I’m warning that I won’t surrender to this manipulation,” said a statement on Mousavi’s Web site. “The outcome of what we’ve seen from the performance of officials … is nothing but shaking the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s sacred system and governance of lies and dictatorship.”

He warned “people won’t respect those who take power through fraud.”

The headline on one of Mousavi’s Web sites: “I wont give in to this dangerous manipulation.” Mousavi and key aides could not be reached by phone.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, thanked the people for their record 85 percent participation and warned opposition candidates to “avoid provocative behavior.”

“I assume that enemies intend to eliminate the sweetness of the election with their hostile provocation,” he said in his televised address.

He called the results a “divine assessment” and called on all the candidates to support the president.

On Friday night, Mousavi called a press conference to claim victory and alleged that he was the victim of election irregularities.

Mousavi declared himself “definitely the winner” based on “all indications from all over Iran.” He accused the government of “manipulating the people’s vote” to keep Ahmadinejad in power and suggested the reformist camp would stand up to challenge the results.

“It is our duty to defend people’s votes. There is no turning back,” Mousavi said, alleging widespread irregularities.
Allegations are widespread that foul play and sabotage impacted the final outcome. Some Iranians are asserting that there were insufficient polling stations and shortages of ballot papers in pro-Mousavi neighborhoods, that voters were preventing from casting their ballots by the authorities, and that ominous threats were issued that the regime would lash out if Ahmadinejad were to lose.

The “green” Mousavi campaign network was aware of such dangers ahead of Friday’s polling and even warned supporters to cast their votes in schools rather than mosques.

But the word from his camp is that it was also hamstrung by government interference in his supporters’ Internet communications, and that his representatives were not allowed to monitor the voting in some areas. To their misfortune, it is being charged, they were left outside to watch Ahmadinejad’s officials direct proceedings.

There are also reports of Iranians being locked out of polling booths in certain provinces while poorer voters, widely regarded as the incumbent president’s largest and most dependable group of supporters, lined up with ease to cast their ballots at local mosques.

News agencies reported that cellphone text messages, used most by young urbanites, Mousavi’s constituency, couldn’t be sent on Friday. And there were even rumors that pens provided at polling stations were filled with disappearing ink. Supporters of Mousavi and fellow reformist challenger Mahdi Karroubi were urged to bring their own.

Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli disputed that there were problems, however, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in Iran, urged voters, as he cast his ballot Friday, “Don’t pay attention to the rumors.”

Sara Hasani, a young Iranian who led Mousavi’s green campaign in her local neighborhood, alleged Saturday that “they (the government) robbed us of Mousavi’s victory.”

“It is simply not possible that Ahmadinejad is winning with about 70% of the votes,” she said.

“They cannot give us hope and take it away from the people. It appears Ahmadinejad has successfully manipulated the campaign scene better than we thought. Our votes are meaningless. It’s a cruel joke.”

“Deep down I knew Ahmadinejad was promised another four years by the Supreme Leader, but I didn’t want to believe it,” added a young man who said he had been prevented from voting because the authorities “ran out of ballots.”

“Now when I look at Ahmadinejad’s behavior throughout his campaign,” he went on, “it is obvious that he was already preparing for his next term. His last three weeks, for example, have been filled with diplomatic meetings in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Turkey. We all should have known, the dictator is here to stay.”

Mousavi favors trying to repair ties to the US and economic liberalization. His supporters said Saturday they fear Ahmadinejad, who publicly clashed with his rival over domestic and international issues in a campaign remarkable for the candidates’ personal feuding and the intensity of their respective supporters’ street rallies, would now move to unseat reformist figures from positions of influence.

The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Ahmadinejad plans a public address later Saturday in Teheran.

AP contributed to this report.