Iran Supreme Leader Orders Election Fraud Investigation
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Elections, Iran
After a weekend of protests and clashes over the alleged fraud perpetrated by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s party in Iran, the real powers in Iran are stepping in:
State television quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei directing a high-level clerical panel, the Guardian Council, to look into charges by pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has said he is the rightful winner of Friday’s presidential election.
The decision comes after Mousavi wrote a letter appealing to the Guardian Council and met Sunday with Khamenei, who holds almost limitless power over Iranian affairs. Such an election probe by the 12-member council is uncharted territory and it not immediately clear how it would proceed or how long it would take.
What we don’t know is whether this investigation is just for show or whether Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is actually concerned about the underhanded tactics apparently used to rig the election. After all, Iran’s theocratic leaders don’t exactly have a history of defending democracy. This move could very well be nothing more than an attempt to silent the ongoing protests.
We’ll see. Wish I could be more optimistic.
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June 15th, 2009 at 8:44 am
More and more, I’m convinced this election is a legitmate one. What’s probably happening is a Western projection of surely-you’ve-come-to-your-senses, and this kind of wishful thinking has never had any true place in the Middle East.
With this election, Iranians, like water, simply may be seeking their own level.
Jake
June 15th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I can see two possible explanations:
1) If the election fraud was a joint effort by Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, this could be Khamenei’s reaction to the realization that they might have actually generated a possible revolution against the whole system of government in Iran. In short, an investigation may restore enough credibility to preserve the theocracy.
2) if the election fraud was an attempted coup by Ahmadinejad, to take over power and leave Khamenei as a figurehead, this could be Khamenei’s reaction to belatedly realizing what was going on. In this case, an attempt to keep the mullahs (i.e. himself) in real power.
It will be a while, probably quite a while, before we find out which. Or if something else was going on. It is even possible, albeit looking increasingly unlike, that Jake has it right — but legitimate electoral winners do not typically start out be arresting the opponents that they overwhelmingly defeated.
June 15th, 2009 at 10:00 am
True reform won’t happen in Iran until the bearded old theocratic coots like the one pictured above are done away with.
My recommendation? Load ‘em on a plane, send ‘em to Iowa, and let ‘em work the bigger hog farm lagoons.
Agnostick
agnostick@excite.com
June 15th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I don’t think the investigation will calm down any protesters, but it might help somewhat with worldwide opinion. I don’t think we will ever know for sure what the real result would have been, but I think that the next election will not have anyone nearly so “moderate” on the ballot.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Much of the Western Media was ready to declare fraud even before election came. There is little in the way of media even-handedness in terms of Iran. I dont know if there was an fraud in the election, but the simple fact there have been protests in the streets of Tehran spealks volumes. If anyone even uttered a single negative word about leaders in places like Saudi Arabia and The UAE, and even the more moderate Jordan… they are dealt with severely. Why do you think they never protest in these places??
I’m a Canadian living in the Middle East and I have been to Iran on occasion. The people there are well-formed, kind and much more open-minded than they are given credit for. Many I know personally, like Ahmadinejad… and this drives the West Crazy.
June 15th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
As a side note, a first hand account of a RELATIVITY OnLine writer’s time in Iran and the Middle East in general reveals a perspective not often seen in Western Media circles.