NEWS: Hardliner Wins Iranian Presidential Election

The hardliner Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won Iran's runoff presidential election by a landslide according to Iranian state-run television. The Tehran Mayor says he wants to embrace the principles of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and may rollback recent Iranian reforms by banning the Internet and restricting women's rights. Ahmadinejad defeated the moderate candidate Rafsanjani by garnering 61% of the popular vote.



This is a disturbing development, even though it probably wouldn't have mattered much either way since in Iran the religious mullahs still retain the ultimate power. But still it will be far tougher for the U.S. to get concessions from Iran on their nuclear ambitions plus the Iranian people are likely to fall under stricter religious constraints on their human rights.

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[edit on 25-6-2005 by John bull 1]

[edit on 27-6-2005 by John bull 1]

Im not surprised as the ruling clique of religious leaders hold all the power anyway. The ensured this result in the last election when they barred most moderate candidates from even running. Iran will head backwards for a bit untill the demaonds for freedom grow to great to ignore. The younger generations grow tired of the the religious extremism and want a more open life.

I declared that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would win the rigged election last night before the run-off voting began.

Did the Ayatollah selected him to win the Presidency? I say yes.

This is an unfortunately sad day for the young Iranians hoping for a new openness with the West and the US under Rafsanjani.

I don't know? The first thing I thought of when I read this was "this is great for George Bush, it will give him yet another reason to invade Iran". The US needs another war to keep the economy going. Support for Iraq is way down, most Americans want a schedule for withdrawal from Iraq. If all the associated costs of war stop coming in, it will send the US economy into a recession. Bush & Co. are looking for another war, they don't want one with N. Korea because that could get ugly. However, Iran isn't as big a threat, and it would be a simpler logistical situation for the U.S.

Hence, I think that George Bush is happy about this one, and maybe he passed on his knowledge about how to rig an election!!

Food for thought

Peace in the Middle East,

I'm out,

Deeznutz

Well that sucks but i guess they can vote for whoever they want. Looks like they don't want to trust in diplomacy to keep the US from invading them because of their alleged WMD program but after Iraq tried the diplomatic route and failed i guess i can't blame them. I just hope they use any nukes they build as a deterent and don't let the crazies get their hands on them. This is not good news at all.

I'm still trying to work out who is more hard-line:

Ahmadinejad or Bush.

In all seriousness, they have voted for him in good faith and we shouldn't meddle.

Originally posted by FredT
Im not surprised as the ruling clique of religious leaders hold all the power anyway. The ensured this result in the last election when they barred most moderate candidates from even running.

Out of the seven candidates there were three reformists and one moderate running. The poor and religious throw their weight behind one candidate and defeated everyone else while the reformists were very devided in the first round. This lead to a moderate and a ultra-conservative hardliner winning the first round. In the second round the reformists, students etc... didnt like either of the candidates as rafsanjani is a well known, common theif and the other guy was a die hard fundimentalist. So they decided to stay out which lead to the second guy winning.

It is kind of sad really. If the reformists had untied behind one leader they could have won. Either Moin or Karroubi would have been great, but they were devided and were at last put down.

This is terrible for the women. They will be hardest hit if this man follows through with his reforms. I feel so bad. He may go as far as requiring all females to cover their whole face again. No human should have to suffer the punishment of hiding their faces from the world just because of how they were born.

I still am 100% doubtful that Bush will take any military action against Iran. It just would not be wise. I mean if he puts all his reserve troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then sends his active military into Iran. Whats he going to use against the people when we revolt for his actions Because a Draft sure as hell aint going to work this time. Not without a fight.

They had more candidates for the Presidency than American elections do. I wanted Rafsanjani to win but he didnt, "get over it".

Im sure the election of Ahmadinejad will ruffle feathers in Washington and will give another reason for them to demonize Iran.

Sad, because while Rafsanjani was smart enough to avoid the coming confrontation with the US, this guy look like the perfect excuse for us to go seize their oil, screaming "we must stop the terrorists!" or "omg WMDs!" or whatever flavor of misdirection seems appropriate for the moment.

Originally posted by DYepes
This is terrible for the women. They will be hardest hit if this man follows through with his reforms.

Possibly a bit exaggerated, however my knowledge is limited. I read that one of his main policies was increasing social welfare for women, and i doubt he would go back to how it was in 79, there would be another revolution, which would be a good thing, and a bad thing for Bush. This idea of him being a hardliner is just an exaggeration by the media, which is what they tend to do. Who knows, maybe the election were rigged, in order to cause a revolution and then make it less easy for Bush to bomb them?

Ya know, the hypocrisy on this site sometimes just makes me laugh.

Of course the U.S. elections were rigged but when it comes to a country where it is public knowledge that the elections aren't ran fairly it is a just and fair win by whomever it is that does in fact win.

Does this not scream "bias against the U.S.!" about a thousand decibals loud?

-wD

Personally I don't doubt that there was some vote-rigging here at all.

There is also the fact that the reformers were strongly divided (& many boycotted the election), wheras the hardliners seemed united behind Ahmadinejad.

Drawing The Hard Line

Hard-line hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected in what is seen as a hard-line victory for hard-liners in Iran's hard-line government, promised a hard-line approach to tackling Iran's looming unemployment crisis.

“The secret to success lies in drawing a hard line, then enforcing it with hard-line tactics,” hard-liner Ahmadinejad reportedly told unnamed and uncorroborated non-hard-line sources while smiling a hard-lined smile on his hard-lined face.

Iran's non-hard-line moderates, who, unlike the hard-liners, only want what is best for Iran, expressed concern that a hard-liner had won the hard-fought contest.

Concerns about increasingly harder lines being drawn by an already hard-line government are fueling fears of a new hard-line era in Iran's hard-line history, which could lead to some of the hardest lines ever taken by any hard-liner ever.

There is even speculation that Iran's hard-line government may be secretly developing what sources call “an unbreakable hard-line” that would theoretically be capable of withstanding the most withering assaults of God-blessed, self-righteous, U.S.-approved democracy against hard-liners.

Geez. Good thing there's a free press to warn us about those hard-line hard-liners in Iran.

Without them to think for me, I might never have known.