|
Written by Kaveh L. Afrasiabi
|
|
Thursday, 18 June 2009 13:14 |
 Mir Hossein Mousavi, the reformist candidate challenging Iran's authorities
on the result of last week's presidential elections, is a masterful tactician
who wants to overturn the re-election of his rival, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad,
with allegations of a massive conspiracy that he claims cheated him and millions
of his supporters.
These supporters, identifiable by the color green they have adopted, have taken
to the streets in the tens of thousands and on Thursday were to stage a "day of
mourning" for what they say is a lost election. This follows a "silent" march
through the streets of the capital on Wednesday. To date, at least 10 people -
some Iranian sources say 32 - have been killed in clashes.
Mousavi has lodged an official complaint with the powerful 12-member Guardians
Council, which has ordered a partial recount of the vote. The complaint's main
flaw is that it passes improper or questionable pre-election conduct as
something else, that is, as evidence of voting fraud.
The protest, which seeks fresh elections, is short on specifics and long on
extraneous, election-unrelated complaints. The first two items relate to the
televised debates that were held between the candidates, rather than anything
germane to the vote count.
There is also some innuendo, such as a claim that Ahmadinejad used state-owned
means of transportation to campaign around the country, overlooking that there
is nothing unusual about incumbent leaders using the resources at their disposal
for election purposes. All previous presidents, including the reformist Mohammad
Khatami, who is a main supporter of Mousavi, did the same.
Another complaint by Mousavi is that Ahmadinejad had disproportionate access to
the state-controlled media. This has indeed been a bad habit in the 30-year
history of the Islamic Republic, but perhaps less so this year because for the
first time there were television debates, six of them, which allowed Mousavi and
the other challengers free space to present their points of view.
With respect to alleged specific irregularities, the complaint cites a shortage
of election forms that in some places caused a "few hours delay". This is
something to complain about, but it hardly amounts to fraud, especially as voter
turnout was a record high of 85% of the eligible 46 million voters. (Ahmadinejad
was credited with 64% of the vote.)
Mousavi complains that in some areas the votes cast were higher than the number
of registered voters. But he fails to add that some of those areas, such as
Yazd, were places where he received more votes that Ahmadinejad.
Furthermore, Mousavi complains that some of his monitors were not accredited by
the Interior Ministry and therefore he was unable to independently monitor the
elections. However, several thousand monitors representing the various
candidates were accredited and that included hundreds of Mousavi's eyes and
ears.
They should have documented any irregularities that, per the guidelines, should
have been appended to his complaint. Nothing is appended to Mousavi's two-page
complaint, however. He does allude to some 80 letters that he had previously
sent to the Interior Ministry, without either appending those letters or
restating their content.
Finally, item eight of the complaint cites Ahmadinejad's recourse to the support
given by various members of Iran's armed forces, as well as Foreign Minister
Manouchehr Mottaki's brief campaigning on Ahmadinejad's behalf. These are
legitimate complaints that necessitate serious scrutiny since by law such state
individuals are forbidden to take sides. It should be noted that Mousavi can be
accused of the same irregularity as his headquarters had a division devoted to
the armed forces.
Given the thin evidence presented by Mousavi, there can be little chance of an
annulment of the result.
---
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in
Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) . For his Wikipedia entry, click here.
His latest book, Reading In Iran Foreign Policy After September 11 (BookSurge
Publishing , October 23, 2008) is now available.
Source: Asia Times
|
why are you betrayed to allah nation.
Buildings built on straws do tend to collapse very fast.