Ahmadinejad's main challenger Mousavi had been widely expected to win by a landslide or at least do well enough to trigger a run-off. It doesn't seem plausible that everyone got it so wrong, particularly with such a high turn out. When people who have never voted before go out to vote, desire for change is very strong. That combined with Ahmadinejad getting more votes in all other candidates home towns, that's really unbelievable outside of Zimbabwe.
Yet perhaps the problem is as Abbas Barzegar article states "Iran isn't Tehran", the poorer working people in Iran always had the deciding vote and their vote was for Ahmadinejad. He positioned himself as a man of the people. Perhaps we looked at this election with too Westen eyes and not enough understanding of the whole of Iran.
Mousavi is to dispute the results and in an article on Tehran Bureau his spokesman says it was a coup and the results were never counted. Mousavi himself has posted a letter calling the dishonesty dangerous.
It's very sad for the Iranians that wanted change and wanted it through the ballot box. It now puts Iran into a hostile situation, both with Mousavi supporters feeling wronged and Ahmadinejad reaction to this yet to be seen. Hopefully he may try to defuse a potential backlash to avert a political crisis. Unfortunately articles and events so far suggest otherwise.
Yet perhaps the problem is as Abbas Barzegar article states "Iran isn't Tehran", the poorer working people in Iran always had the deciding vote and their vote was for Ahmadinejad. He positioned himself as a man of the people. Perhaps we looked at this election with too Westen eyes and not enough understanding of the whole of Iran.
Mousavi is to dispute the results and in an article on Tehran Bureau his spokesman says it was a coup and the results were never counted. Mousavi himself has posted a letter calling the dishonesty dangerous.
It's very sad for the Iranians that wanted change and wanted it through the ballot box. It now puts Iran into a hostile situation, both with Mousavi supporters feeling wronged and Ahmadinejad reaction to this yet to be seen. Hopefully he may try to defuse a potential backlash to avert a political crisis. Unfortunately articles and events so far suggest otherwise.
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