Via the NYT: Iran Moderate Says Hard-Liners Rigged Election
The accusation of voting irregularities came from Mehdi Karroubi, a cleric and former speaker of Parliament known as a conciliator, who said he would continue to press his case publicly unless the country’s supreme religious leader ordered an independent investigation.It was a bold move in a country that does not generally tolerate such forms of public dissent, and it threw an element of confusion and uncertainty into the race just as the authorities were finalizing the election results, planning for the runoff and pointing to the outcome as a validation of this country’s religion-based system of government.
The Interior Ministry issued final figures Saturday night, saying the former two-term president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, would face off against the hard-line mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a runoff it said would probably be held next Friday. It was unclear what, if any, effect the accusations of fraud would have on the planned vote.
My guess is: none.
Still, this is interesting, as the bona fides of the person registering the charges makes them noteworthy at a minimum. The response of the Guardian Council to these charges, and specifically their reponse to Karroubi personally, will be most interesting.
However, in the absent of stunning evidence, this is unlikley to affect the elections.
Still, charges came from Moin as well:
His charges gained some added currency on Saturday night when they were echoed by Dr. Mostafa Moin, the reform candidate who came in fifth after public opinion polls had shown him vying for second place. Dr. Moin said in a statement that military forces in the country joined together with some political organizations to rig the election and to promote a particular candidate, though he did not say which one.“This is a warning for democracy,” Dr. Moin said in the statement. “We must be aware that such efforts will eventually lead to militarizing the regime, and political and social supression. This is a threat for civil society and is blocking reform.”
There are clearly multiple political currents swirling within Iran at the moment. While I do not know whether to take these charges seriously (given that it is not unusual for losers to cry foul), it is clear that there are large numbers of persons in Iran who wish to liberalize the government. Hopefully they will prevail.
