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Ear to the Ground

Iran Election Watchdog Stands by Results

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Posted on Jun 23, 2009
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The tens of thousands of protesters who have filled Tehran’s streets since election results were announced last week will not welcome the Guardian Council’s decision.

Iran’s Guardian Council has found “no major fraud or breach in the election” and will not annul the vote, a spokesman announced Tuesday. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, meanwhile, jumped into the fray, calling on the Iranian government to “respect fundamental civil and political rights, especially the freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of information.”

Read Ban’s full statement here.

BBC:

English-language Press TV reported the Guardian Council’s rejecting an annulment on Tuesday.

On Monday, it had conceded there had been voting irregularities in 50 districts, including local vote counts that exceeded the number of eligible voters.

However, it said they were not enough to affect the overall result and incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had indeed won by a landslide.

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By Sepharad, June 25, 2009 at 7:45 pm Link to this comment

ardee and Folktruther and Ed Harges—agree with the dog wagging the tail in its hunger for oil, but am concerned about something Ed said on the “...More Than Symbols…” thread, that Moussavi is in favor of more privatization. If true, it would be a good reason to prefer Ahmadinejad. But it does surprise me. Privatization is such a blight (and in Iran’s case so unnecessary)and so retrograde and so class-divide-widening that it alone could wreck Iran—which doesn’t really need it. Another corrupt failed state is in nobody’s interest. I’d rather take my chances with a nuclear Iran, and suspect most intelligent Israelis would as well, if it were put to them that way. (Excluding of course the current government.) At the moment however, am most concerned with Obama not pushing the public health care plan harder. It’s just kind of bobbing on the water out there.

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By ardee, June 25, 2009 at 3:35 am Link to this comment

Folktruther, June 23 at 7:54 pm #

I changed my mind about Israel and the Zionists.  I think they do what the US neoliberal ruling class says.  I think it is oil that is the main enticement in Iran, not the nuclear stuff.
...................................


Welcome to the light, FT, always room for a literate and knowledgeable poster here on this side of things…...grin

It is an absurdity , or an outgrowth of religious intolerance, to believe a tiny nation rules an immense and powerful one. No, Israel is a willing stooge , using the US for its military supplies and its assistance in expansionist desires, but it is the USA who pulls the strings.

It is to the benefit of many within the US government to foment unrest and injustice in the Middle East, especially with all that yummy oil…..

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By Folktruther, June 23, 2009 at 4:54 pm Link to this comment

While the US may not care much about Moussavi, they really do want his billionaire backer Rafsamjami in power.  He is a neoliberal with a lot of long time contacts in the US.  He ran against Ahmadinejad for president in 2005 and was defeated by the same margin.

I changed my mind about Israel and the Zionists.  I think they do what the US neoliberal ruling class says.  I think it is oil that is the main enticement in Iran, not the nuclear stuff.  Iran was the Axis of Evil before their nuclear machines got really going.

Corwn Prince Reza Pahlavi lives in the US and has beeen funded by our Democracy organizations.  He is referred to as His Royal Majasty Reza Shah 11.  He is strongly for Democracy, like his dad.

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By Sepharad, June 23, 2009 at 1:17 pm Link to this comment

ardee, what you say makes sense to me.

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By jonr, June 23, 2009 at 12:51 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

While it’s obvious that many people in Iran are extremely unhappy, there are at least two things to consider:
1) Barring evidence of outright fraud to such an overwhelming extent that a close to 2:1 victory might actually be reversed, there remains the possibility that the election results in Iran are an accurate reflection of the will of the people in Iran and
2) Even if that evidence were forthcoming, and it certainly is not, it is no more up to the United States of America to ensure free and fair elections in Iran than it is up to us to ensure free and fair elections in China… or anywhere else.

It would be lovely, in a perfect world, if there was such a thing as a United Nations that could somehow act to ensure free and fair elections in all countries everywhere, but that’s just not the way it is.  It would be nice if the United Nations had enough real legitimacy to prosecute war crimes by any individual and/or any nation on earth, too, but the United States government consistently stands in the way of that sort of even-handedness and, by extension, any real legitimacy.
That being the case, WHERE do the blowhards in Congress and on talk radio get off demanding that this president “talk” tougher toward Iran?  I mean, what is the point of that?

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Ed Harges's avatar

By Ed Harges, June 23, 2009 at 10:32 am Link to this comment

re:By Folktruther, June 23 at 1:15 pm:

Yeah, FT; I know that the actual destruction of Iran through civil war and chaos - a meltdown - is their first choice. And that might happen still. But if it doesn’t, Ahmadinejad remains the prez, and more useful than ever as a figure for demonizing Iran. They are only pretending to prefer Mousavi, obviously.

First choice: destruction of Iran; Shah returns to power and rules over the ruins of Iran as a US/Israeli puppet dictator. Israel maintains regional nuclear technology monopoly; Arab and Muslims are not allowed even to have slide-rules.

Second choice: Ahmadinejad stays in power, more demonized than ever for having “stolen the election” — making it easier for Americans to accept propaganda campaign to bomb Iran in order to save it.

Read this:

Why Iran’s Ahmadinejad is preferred in Israel

The incumbent president will be easier to isolate than reformist leader Mr. Mousavi, say some leading Israeli policymakers.

...many officials and analysts here actually prefer the incumbent president because – short of the downfall of Iran’s theocratic system of government – he’ll be easier to isolate.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0621/p06s04-wome.html

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By Lawlessone, June 23, 2009 at 10:28 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

I wonder why the Republican Party is so angrily pretending something can be about the fraudulent election in Iran?  After all, the Republican Guard in Iran was merely following the example of the Republican Party in Florida in 2000.

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By Folktruther, June 23, 2009 at 10:15 am Link to this comment

It’s not over yet, Ed.  The US is financing terrorist groups that are blowing up mosques.  They can vastly increase the terrorism now to promote Freedom and Democracy.

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By Ed Harges, June 23, 2009 at 7:56 am Link to this comment

The Israelis and neocons can relax.

Ahmadinejad will remain in power, and his usefulness as a demon has been greatly enhanced, after their successful PR campaign.

Now they can say, “See — he’s an election-stealer! This just shows he’s even worse than we thought: time to bomb, bomb, bomb — bomb, bomb Iran! (But don’t worry — it will be a ‘surgical bombing’ of just a few thousand purely military targets — none of those stylish young protesters will be harmed!”).

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By Folktruther, June 23, 2009 at 6:18 am Link to this comment

gosh, the West has gotten the UN head to support hte Western position.  This despite the obvious landslide of the election and the US Big Lie of an “Irani Stolen Election,”  and attempt at a Color Revolution.

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By ardee, June 23, 2009 at 4:57 am Link to this comment

Obviously Iranians need to deal with the problems they perceive within their own nation. Just as Americans need to deal with our own, and pretty serious problems of our own.

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