Posted on 06/16/2009 3:03:41 AM PDT by GoldStandard
Without any evidence, many U.S. politicians and “Iran experts” have dismissed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reelection Friday, with 62.6 percent of the vote, as fraud.
They ignore the fact that Ahmadinejad’s 62.6 percent of the vote in this year’s election is essentially the same as the 61.69 percent he received in the final count of the 2005 presidential election, when he trounced former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The shock of the “Iran experts” over Friday’s results is entirely self-generated, based on their preferred assumptions and wishful thinking.
Although Iran’s elections are not free by Western standards, the Islamic Republic has a 30-year history of highly contested and competitive elections at the presidential, parliamentary and local levels. Manipulation has always been there, as it is in many other countries.
But upsets occur — as, most notably, with Mohammed Khatami’s surprise victory in the 1997 presidential election. Moreover, “blowouts” also occur — as in Khatami’s reelection in 2001, Ahmadinejad’s first victory in 2005 and, we would argue, this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
34,000,000 paper ballots counted in 2 hours? Hmmmmmmmm
Hey, give them credit: they didn’t declare a winner before a single vote was counted ala CNN.
What cheesebags.
To put it mildly. Out of 400 candidates, only 5 were allowed to run by a council of Mullahs.
What a load of crap. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union used to run similar jokes, and no one lectured us about how noble their elections were like this Lecturing Liberal.
What does that mean “by Western standards”?
Either the are fair and free or they aren’t.
Stalin was right.
they’re aren’t free and fair by any standard
Leftists love tyranny and oppression.
“Although Iran’s elections are not free by Western standards”
Some Western standards are changing where ACORN is involved.
They had 2,000,000 tellers.
What does that mean “by Western standards”?
Either the are fair and free or they aren’t.
Why?
Ever hear of Card Check?
Unions in this Country want election for unions to be open(non secret ballot) the Democrat Party and much of the media in this nation support that. If passed then is that fair and free or isn’t it?
-—By Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett.
That’s all you need to read.
Now that I’m following the situation on twitter, it makes those authors of that piece seem like rank propagandists.
Good point, GoldStandard! Freedom lost, and slavery won! Let’s all just ACCEPT it. As you say, “Get over it!” ;-) We all need to learn to RESIGN ourselves to evil and utterly SUBMIT to slavery!!!
When the Mullahs count the ballots, what is written on them is irrelevent.
One candidate (Khorrubi) got 1% in his home province, where his previous average over the last two elections was over 40.
There are few things more contemptible than the “it’s a _____ thing, you wouldn’t understand” gambit. It allows systems to treat people as subhuman.
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