The Iranian voting public put a hardliner and a conservative pragmatist into a run-off election with their ballots on Friday. With a turnout of 62 percent or more, voters rejected reformist youth calls for a boycott and some said they meant their vote to be a slap in the face of US President George W. Bush.
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It is likely that the Iranian electorate's swing to the Right reflects in part a deep unease about being surrounded by the United States, which has troops both in Afghanistan and Iran. Post-revolutionary Iranians are nationalistic and determined to maintain their national independence, and all the talk by the Bush administration about regime change, aggressive action against Iran over its nuclear research program [which so far appears to have been conducted within the limits set by the Non-Proliferation Treaty], and the illegitimacy of the Iranian elections themselves, appears to have contributed to the greater success of the hardliners.
The Bush Administration foreign policy failures continue. Attempts to influence Iranians from moving away from the Rightwing Mullahs has backfired. Iranians came out to vote in larger numbers than the typical US elections, 62% of the voting public rejected the boycott of the reformist movement.
American public is more at risk to terrorists now and in the future than it has ever been. Thank you Mr. Bush.
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Iranian veteran faces challenge form hard-liner
18/06/2005 - 19:07:33
Iran will hold the first runoff presidential election in its history between political veteran Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani and Tehran’s hard-line mayor, election officials said today.
The contest on Friday offers distinct choices. Rafsanjani, 70, is a moderate who served as president from 1989-97. His rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, 49, is untested as a national political figure and has the backing of Iran’s ruling clerics and their military guardians.
The counting ended yesterday with 29.3 million votes cast, Rafsanjani took 6.1 million or 21% of the vote. Ahmadinejad took 5.7 million votes or 19.48%. Former Parliament speaker Mahdi Karroubi just missed out, garnering 5.6 million votes or 19.3% of the vote.
Voting turnout of 62.7% is seen as a rejection of a youth-led boycott – with lines of voters forcing polling to continue four hours overtime. Iran’s hard-line leaders crowed that US President George Bush helped fuel the turnout by sharply criticising the elections as undemocratic and angering many Iranians.
Iran has 46.7 million eligible voters, including millions living overseas.
Ahmadinejad, who surprised analysts with his strong performance, reportedly had the support of Iran’s most hard-line factions, including the Revolutionary Guards.
Karroubi, who was popular in rural areas, accused Revolutionary Guards and their civilian vigilante wings of intimidating voters and appealed for an investigation.
Karroubi is a close ally of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who heads the non-elected theocracy that can overrule the president or parliament.
The reformist Mustofa Moin, a former culture minister, had been seen as a strong possibility to enter the second round against Rafsanjani. But he fell to the bottom of the heap along with Bagher Qalibaf, a former head of the national police and another hopeful for the second spot.
The second round of voting takes place next Friday because no one candidate was able to get the required 51% of the popular vote for an outright victory.
During the campaign, Rafsanjani – who was president between 1989 and 1997 - portrayed himself as a steady hand at the helm, able to navigate Iran through the treacherous days ahead, fraught with uncertainty over the nuclear programme, relations with the US and neighbouring Iraq.
A day before the election, Bush sharply denounced the vote, saying it was designed to keep power in the hands of the clerics. But some Iranians said they were motivated to vote to retaliate against Bush’s denunciations.
“I picked Ahmadinejad to slap America in the face,†said Mahdi Mirmalek after attending Friday prayers at Tehran University.
At Tehran University, the leader of Friday prayers, Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani, told worshippers that voting “strengthens the pillars of the ruling Islamic establishment.†Followers then joined in with the common chant of “Death to America!â€
The US accuses Iran of using nuclear technology as a cover to develop atomic arms. Iran insists it aims only for electricity-producing reactors. Iran has suspended uranium-enrichment work during ongoing talks with European envoys.
Iran and the US have had no diplomatic ties since 1979 when Iranian militants stormed the US Embassy and kept 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
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