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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (190006)	6/23/2006 12:58:02 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Try to stay on topic. We are not debating Ahamdinejad but the election... Try to STOP AVOIDING the topic, which is the nature of the power structure in Iran and who's REALLY calling the shots there. Ahmadinejad is the FACE of the TRUE power structure in Iran, namely the IRGC and Religious Fanatics. They are JUST AS CORRUPT as any of the other rivals to power in Iran, but they control the media and state security which gives them the power to reveal their rivals corruption, while using intimidation and censorship to prevent any of their OWN corruption from seeing the light of day. The "elections" in Iran were skewed from day one. Over 1,000 reformist candidates were denied the approval of the religious power elite and could not run for office. Ahmadinejad was advanced from a position of relative obscurity and "elected" under VERY suspicious circumstances. (read "rigged"). opinionjournal.com The one number worth parsing in Friday's election is that of voter participation. Many Iranians had called for a boycott as the only way of showing resistance. Knowing this, the mullahs seem to have taken their usual election manipulations to another level. Intimidation by the Revolutionary Guards and the fact that proof of voting is needed for certain jobs and welfare payments have always pushed up turnout. Still, voter participation has steadily declined in the past few years to barely 50%. But this time turnout was 62.7%, exactly the level Supreme Leader Khameni had predicted. "Something is fishy here," Patrick Clawson, who follows Iran for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told us. Contradicting all reports about the mood in the country ahead of the vote, hard-line candidates received unprecedented support, while the main reformist candidate, Mustafa Moin, came in fifth. Mr. Moin also suggested the elections were rigged, but since the regime allows no neutral observers the real extent of fraud or Iranian discontent can't be known. indiadaily.com iranfocus.com “The hardliners’ domination of politics in Tehran throws the European Union’s policy of ‘constructive engagement’ with the Islamic state into complete confusion”, a European diplomat who was in Tehran until recently said in a telephone interview. “Engaging Iran in the hope of promoting moderates has backfired”. “He owes his victory as much to the strong organization of the Revolutionary Guards and the paramilitary Bassij as to the anti-Rafsanjani vote by millions of impoverished Iranians who hate the former President as a symbol of corruption and nepotism”, Ali Yarandi, a sociologist in Tehran University, said. “The same machinery that won the last two national elections [municipal elections in 2003 and parliamentary elections in 2004] steamrolled to victory this time”, journalist Haleh Hayati said. “This is not about democratic elections. It’s about the Revolutionary Guards and Islamic vigilantes stuffing ballot boxes with fake votes and intimidating election workers and voters alike”. THIS is the topic.. Who really controls politics within Iran. And it's clearly the religious fanatics and the IRGC. Hawk