Iranians may be ready to vote Ahmadinejad out of power

The president doesn't have much power in IRAN. Its the supreme leader/ clerics that make the real decisions.

 

still Ahmadinejad will win

 

Will it make a difference? What is the possibility of getting someone worse?

Rocket River

 

There are 4 candidates, but the only two that have a chance to win are Mousavi and Ahmadinejad. In the latest polls, the largest group, something like 30%, still say they are 'undecided' so it is pretty wide open at this point. If nobody gets an absolute majority of the votes tomorrow, there will be a runoff election next Friday.

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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Iran Presidential Election: Mousavi's Platform

The following is an abridged version of Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi's national address broadcast by IRIB channel 4 today [Press TV, 4 June 2009].

Freedom of Information

"It is in the interest of the nation to have free access to all sorts of information."

"Accessing government information is very difficult. I teach at university. There are instance at the universities where students cannot even get access to non-confidential information. I sometimes had to send letters to authorities in this regard but received no replies."

"We should move towards a state in which the government is bound to provide the citizens with any information -- Military and security information should be the only exceptions."

"The country's development is not possible without the freedom of the media and the press."

"The only limits for the media should be those clearly stated in the Constitution."

Iran's Nuclear Program

"Regarding Iran's nuclear program, the country has a 'general policy'. With respect to that policy, all the achievements, approaches and progress that have been made should not be abandoned."

"There are two issues regarding our nuclear program: the first is the use of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, which is in our national interests and thus cannot be abandoned. The second issue is what some countries say about possible diversions in our nuclear program. This is what we are ready to discuss with other countries. "

Relations with the United States

"Before the Obama administration, an imminent attack on Iran was the headline of all American newspapers. However, it should be stressed that the US refrained from attacking Iran because of its fear of our nation and its resistance."

"The US has changed its tone. Starting relations with the US is not a taboo, should they practically change their stance."

"Iran is not a friend of the US, but America is an influential country in the world with great economic and military capabilities. It is right that we are a powerful nation, but our power should not lead us to act unreasonably. We can not face the US alone. "

Economy

"We should create an economic revolution to fight inflation. The private sector is a vital part of our plans to revive the country's economy."

"The oil industry should improve. Right now our economy is solely restricted to oil exports without realizing that the oil industry is dependent on other economic sectors. "

"Stable economic policies will help Iran to attract foreign investment. Constant changes in managerial level in the country's financial bodies -- such as the central bank -- will definitely harm the economy."

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Presidential Debates: Ahmadinejad vs. Mousavi

In the second night of televised presidential debates, the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, faced former premier and his main rival Mir Hossein Mousavi. Ahmadinejad tried not to debate Mousavi directly, but instead kept attacking former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, as if he was running against them.

Ahmadinejad accused Khatami and Rafsanjani of masterminding a plot to oust him from of power. He specifically accused Rafsanjani of sending a message to one of the kings of the neighboring countries, understood to be the Saudi monarch, in which he had told the king not to worry about Ahmadinejad, because “his term is over in 6 months.” Ahmadinejad did not produce any proof for his accusation.

Mousavi criticized Ahmadinejad for attacking the former presidents who were not even present in the debate. Mousavi observed that Ahmadinejad was using the tactic to shift the focus of the debate away from Mousavi’s criticism of Ahmadinejad administration’s policies.

In the sharpest attack against Ahmadinejad, Mousavi said he prefered the country to be managed not based on adventurism, instability, theatrics, superstition, secrecy, egotism, extremism and lack of regard to laws, but instead he preferred a management style based on calmness and sobriety, realism, transparency, cooperation and moderation.

On foreign policy, Mousavi mocked Ahmadinejad of hallucinating that his administration was controlling the world and accused him of sloganeering instead of managing the country’s foreign policy. Mousavi gave the example of the arrest of British marines off the Iranian coast two years ago, in which the administration elevated international tension over the incident by announcing that the British will be tried and executed.

The debate got nasty as Ahmadinejad accused Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, of going to school to obtain two masters degrees while serving in the government and entering a PhD program without passing the required entrance exams. Mousavi called Ahmadinejad’s personal attack on his wife an “immoral” move.

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I see Ahmadinejad getting re-elected tomorrow.

 

Hopefully it will be Mousavi..like someone mentioned earlier, he is more moderate and is the right step for us to take (iranians)

Chilcutt

 

I don't think the country-folk'll stop lynching teenage girls for dry-humping just yet, but maybe they'll put down the core rods and yellow cake, and just send gift certificates and Supersoakers to Hizbollah. Baby steps for now.

 

The Iranian government is at best a farce government, the intrigues to which this government is formed is actually a common line towards the Supreme leader rather than that of free elections, the final say though hard line or liberal it may be is maid by the Azeri cleric Khamenei. If you watch closely, a speech a few months back given by Mahmoud, he was quite open to dialogue with Obama, this changes after Khamenei and his opium laced speech.

Rafsanjani is the most corrupt individual in the entire world, he makes war criminals look like saints and Khalkhali look like a boy next door. But, I have to admit Khalkhali was a sick b*stard to begin with. Every death in the republic including those of the children of the Khomeini could be traced to Rafsanjani.

Most Iranians are easily swayed by sweet words and a bunch of high falooting promises, during 1979, Khomeini gave promises from free oil to health care, iran ended up with a war with iraq, a deficit and its currency not being worth the paper it is printed in.

 

Mousavi appears as a moderate but he is as hard line as this idiots that the Ayatollah has assembled to run for the election. In iran, they have a system in which there is an approval first by Khamenei before they could run for any election.

 

Well, it is pretty hot over there. Supersoakers would come in handy.

 

Americans voted for change. Will Iranians vote for change?

In my viewpoint, if Iranians continue to vote for hardliners like Ahmadinjead, then the confrontations with the West will continue unabated until...eventually...there might just be a war. If Iran thinks it is in their best interests to continue to be confrontational to the West, then at some point these issues were trying to resolve diplomatically will be resolved by force. It cannot go on like this for another decade IMO...especially with them churning out nuclear material left and right unabated.

The Iranian people themselves, especially their younger generation, remind me a lot of Americans. I see a lot of them wanting freedom of expression and they like a balance of a culture influenced by the West but in balance with their practice of Islam.

What is it going to be? More confrontation...or a shift in relations to where we actually can turn a corner for more peaceful relations?

 

Have you heard of the movie Persepolis?

Its worth checking out, gives the perspective of a young Iranian girl growing up in the midst of the Iranian revolution. Very artfully done, animated in black and white.

 

An interesting sidenote to the election --

US Right-Wing Neocons Rooting For Ahmadinejad Win

American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin told National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez it might be better for Ahmadinejad to win, because a loss might give Obama the impression that diplomacy was working.

 

GO GO MODERATES !!!!

DD

 

Iran's president is just a puppet. Other than for Iran's image, is it really going to matter? Doesn't their Supreme Leader ultimately make the final decisions? That just makes the presidential election a fake stab at democracy but, ultimately, it's a dictatorship. Correct?

 

The BBC has a good primer.

 

CNBC is reporting that the reformer won in a landslide...