Iranian Election

[4thofeleven]

So, hey, how about that Iranian election? No, seriously, what’s going on? The news here doesn’t seem to consider it a particularly big story – I mean, hey, it’s not an American election or anything – and I’m not finding many good sources on what’s going on.

The reported total of sixty-three percent for Ahmadinejad seems… unlikely to be legitimate. If it had gone to a run-off and he’d won a slight majority then, I might have bought it, but all the previous polls had indicated, if not a defeat for the incumbent, at the very least a very close election. Why are regimes that fake election results so bad at producing plausible fake results?

EDIT: And is it just me, or has the international community's response been... well, calling it tepid would be probably overstating its strength. Granted, I understand that the US or other countries openly supporting the opposition will probably not help things - but it's not like any one's ever been particularly slow to condemn the Iranian government before...

Good on the Iranians protesting in Tehran and elsewhere, and good luck. Let's hope this doesn't end in bloodshed...

Comments

[sodzilla.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Sadly, the tepid response may be because 1) very few can really have EXPECTED an honest election, and 2) who's the president of Iran matters very little AFAIK, the real power is in the hands of the ayatollah.

[sunnyskywalker]

I heard one of the minor candidates said he got less votes than he had campaign workers in his home region where he was hugely popular. Plausibility fail!

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

That's one of the things I don't quite get, actually - why fake an election so blatently when it's not even that important an election?

And it's not like for the last few years any country's been takin the position of "It doesn't matter what Ahmadinejad is saying, he doesn't have the real power in Iran..."

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

"A 'D' turns into a 'B' so easily... you just got greedy."