Monday, September 21, 2009

Was the Iranian Election 'Rigged'?

By Robert Parry
September 21, 2009

It is conventional wisdom in the U.S. press corps that Iran’s June 12 presidential election was rigged, with the word “fraud” now sometimes appearing without the qualifier “alleged.” But a new poll of Iranians uncovered a different opinion, an overwhelming judgment that the election was legitimate.

Read on.
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3 comments:

chmoore said...

Kudos for writing this. Since June, I've thought the Iranian election was interesting from a public opinion perspective.

I think the Guardian Council shot itself in the foot, when they took no effort to have independent exit polls, or to have open accountability in ballot counting. But ironically, even if they had, Ahmadinejad likely would have won anyway.

The 3 weeks in advance telephone poll by Terror Free Tomorrow showed:
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - 33.8%
Don’t Know - 27.4%
Refused - 15.1%
Mir Hossein Mousavi - 13.6%
None - 7.6%
Mehdi Karroubi - 1.7%
Mohsen Rezai - 0.9%
Which has Mousavi with only 40% as many votes as Ahmadinejad, and even less support than either 'don't know' or 'refused'.

The reported official election results results were:
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - 62.6%
Mir Hossein Mousavi - 33.75%
Which has Mousavi narrowing the gap up to about 54% as many votes as Ahmadinejad.

But still, to beat Ahmadinejad, Mousavi would have had to pull off a truly colossal turnover of either Ahmadinejad's support, or of the 'don't know' and 'refused' segments, or all of them.

Imagine what the unrest would have been like from that size of an upset.

Tue Sep 22, 01:44:00 AM 2009
Anonymous said...

I do find it hard to believe Ahmadinejad won, honestly. Coming from a guy who said:
"No one has the right to insult the president, and they did it. And this is a crime. The person who insulted the president should be punished, and the punishment is jail..." And this after Mousavi said he had been lying about the economy and isolating Iran diplomatically. (Which he has.) Also opinion polls are generally regarded as unreliable. Espescially considering in 2002, Ayandeh members were arrested. Its director Abbas Abdi spent several years in prison. The poll quoted here from Terror Free Tomorrow has been critcised by the Irish Times and Mansoor Moaddel because it was taken within the first week of campaigning and about 42% of the 1,731 people polled, refused to participate. However, about 58% (1,001) did, which is quite high compared to polls done in the U.S which don't usually go over 30%. Still it was done very early in the campaign with a good portion who did not answer or answered 'undecided.' Also a campaign office of Mousavi's was torched on June 1st and there were reports of an assasination attempt on Khatami via a bomb being on a plane he was boarding. From May 23rd to May 26th, Facebook was shut down, which had about 6,600 supporters for Mousavi on it.
Also Ayatollah Khamenei only let a partial recount of the votes be done(much like in Florida in 2000.) Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri said the election was "used in the worst way possible," and that the government was now attempting a "purge, arresting Scientists, intellectuals and political oppenents." Former Foreign Minister Ebrahim Yazdi, called it a "coup," and was arrested on June 17th and sent to prison.
I suppose we could go on about the election. I find this article a good argument, but I still think the election results are very suspicious. I could be wrong, however.

Tue Sep 22, 05:27:00 AM 2009
Peter Carson said...

Sept 26th 2009

Question :
What exactly were all the US pundits and news media saying about US election fraud during the 2000 and 2004 elections ??

How many TV stations announced Gore the "winner" in 2000, then suddenly recanted - WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION WHATSOEVER ??

I rest my case.

The pundits suddenly went silent when the US election fraud sucked all the oxygen out of the air. All the "Corporate shill's" who are masquerading as if journalists - know the rules: It is necessary to shut-up and keep quiet - because to open one's mouth and speak-out against the plutocracy will always result in a loss of employment - or much, much worse.

I am constantly amazed at just how stupid so many average AmeriKKKan's are, that they never read a newspaper or the internet, but instead rely on CNN, Leno and Letterman for their political opinions. Complete trash.

The fact of the matter is : the United $nakes of ASSa$$ination is the most highly refined nation of experts who truly know how to push through election frauds, especially in their own country.

How many times has the CIA rigged elections in countries all over Central and South America, Indochina, the middle east, and probably Europe and Russia as well. The CIA knows all thre tricks to usurp elections by any means, handing out billions of dollars in cash to people on the streets to form protests, every known form of intimidation tactics, including murder of democratically elected officials who were adverse to the will of large corporations taking over their country.

How many times can the stupid people of AmeriKKKa deny their politicians have used all levels of force and military power to gain economic control of "host nations" rich in natural resources, before they wake-up ??

The problem I see, is there are no pundits left within the remaining "US media" who would dare report any of these facts, because to do so would end one's career - FOREVER !!

Peter Carson
Vancouver BC CanaDUH
cansteel1978@yahoo.ca

Sat Sep 26, 03:37:00 PM 2009

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