Iranian Adventures in Democracy
Funny thing about elections, they sometimes yield unexpected results. The ruling mullahs in Iran are finding out that when you give citizens a voice, they’ll use it. Iranian voters clearly indicated last week that millions of them prefer to have former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi speak for them, rather than current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Vote counting in the Iranian presidential election was obviously fraudulent. The results were announced within a few hours after the polls closed. It takes much longer than that to count millions of hand written ballots.
The Iranian election commission also announced the results without waiting three days, as required by their own rules, further indicating that the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Now the clerics leading the government of Iran find themselves in a bind. They encouraged Iranians to vote. And voters responded, only to find out that the results were fixed. It was an insult to the intelligence of Iranians around the world.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered a review of the election results based on Mr. Mousavi’s allegations of fraud. This announcement was followed by a massive pro-Mousavi rally in Tehran’s freedom square.
While the Iranian government has done all it can to prevent coverage of the civil unrest, words and pictures have been poring out of the country. Many of these images show violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations. Some Iranians have begun to burn buildings and vandalize government offices. It’s hard to believe that Iran’s rulers had this in mind when they urged Iranians to vote. Hopefully Mr. Mousavi will continue to oppose Mr. Ahmadinejad’s authoritarian leadership.
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