Iranian Elections Were Obviously Rigged

This conversation about whether the Iranian vote was fixed is nonsense. Of course it was! Yes, polls in Iran are unreliable but Mousavi was leading 54-39 in the one poll before the election. Heavy voter turnout favored him. And instead he loses 63% to 34%. That's an absolute joke. They might as well have gone all the way and called it 97-3%.

According to these "official" results Mousavi lost his own home district and got far less votes than previous reformist candidates. Look, these things are not conceivable. What is only a hundred percent more likely is that the Iranian government decided ahead of time who was going to win and that was that.

You have to understand 63-34 is a gigantic blowout that is much larger than some of the biggest landslides in American history. When Reagan crushed Mondale in 1984 and carried 49 out of the 50 states, he only won 58.8% to 40.6%. To say Ahmedinejad won 63-34 is not only saying we fixed this thing, but we're rubbing it in your face.

And let's be clear this isn't a matter of some missing ballots or voting irregularities. This is simply making up a number and pretending it's the real vote. I doubt they even counted the actual votes. What would be the point? Remember, the Iranian state news agency declared Ahmedinejad the winner before a single vote had been counted. Gee, I wonder who they were pulling for?  I've never seen an election so rigged in my life (at least one that was actually pretending to be a real election). Saddam Hussein would be proud of the way this election was conducted.

The internet, texting and other forms of communication also happened to be conveniently down during and after the election. These are the main ways Mousavi supporters were communicating with one another. Gee, I wonder which side the state was on? Who gave the order to jam these lines of communication and whose side were they on? How much more obvious can this be?

Most people think the Iranian government turned these devices off to lower the Mousavi vote. I think they didn't give damn about lowering the vote because they weren't going to count the ballots anyway. They turned off the communication so that a revolt would be harder to conduct while they announced the bogus results.

Before the elections the Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced that if Mousavi's people complained about rigged elections, they would crush them. Whose side do you think they were on? And why do you think they might have been making such preparations?

But the clerics who run Iran and Ayatollah Khamenei better be careful what they wish for. This is how you start revolutions. Iran has a very young population that is yearning for more freedom and those younger voters were overwhelmingly on the side of Mousavi. These young Iranians made the mistake of believing that they had some say in their government and that they did not live under a dictatorship. And now they have found out the truth. My guess is that is not going to sit well with them.

It's one thing to bring in a new slightly moderate leader with only some powers as your next president. It's another thing to tell your people that they don't matter and that you rule their lives with an iron fist and that their government is a fraud. That's the kind of thing revolutions are made of.

Watch The Young Turks Here

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...Norm Coleman also claimed victory and demanded a recount and will take it all the way to the Supreme Imam if he has to!

by MedfordTim on 06/13/2009 10:09:26 PM EST

looks like Iran has adopted American democracy...

by orbit639 on 06/14/2009 01:51:53 AM EST

"These young Iranians made the mistake of believing that they had some say in their government and that they did not live under a dictatorship"

Remind me who were Obama's largest campaign contributors?

by Tansul on 06/14/2009 06:00:03 AM EST

They could have at least pretended that it was a fair election. They usually don't report results for three days as the votes are hand counted, but to report while voting was still taking place was just too obvious.

I had hoped that even the Clerics had come to realize that Ahmedinejad was more trouble than he was worth. This gets them nothing, and actually weakens them faster than letting the more moderate win in a fair election.

Fools in power become blinded to reality, and such has happened to Ayatollah Khamenei.

by jrolsen on 06/14/2009 02:11:06 PM EST

IMHO, Ahmadinezhād would have won anyway(, I explained my perspective on the outcome here). You cannot compare an Iranian landslide with an American landslide (not even with the almighty Reagan involved). Like parts of America, in Iran, the local religious leaders (which obviously get instructed by the Ayatollah) tell the electorate which candidate pleases God, but unlike the U.S. the religious landscape is much more homogenous (90% Shi'a), so the Imams only have to shout from their towers for whom to vote and it simply happens. That's what happens when there is no separation of church and state... Maybe the young urban intelligentsia was not aware of the importance of that fact either.

by eborujion on 06/14/2009 04:20:26 PM EST

I had not thought of that, and maybe I should have, given that there are certainly parts of the US where the church leaders do the same thing.   I'd love to know just how profound an effect this has on the elections in Iran.

by bfaul on 06/15/2009 02:57:02 PM EST

[ Parent ]

I do not believe in the Iranian system .. but I know that we all don't have enough data to judge .. & were used that the American media keeps such propaganda up until they invade the country & screw the hell out of it.... then the good people such as the young turks reveal how it was propaganda... calm down people as cenk would say "put down the keyboard".. but I just cannot accept it no more.. stay away from others' businesses.. feed Americans... help the poor ... keep a wide eye on terror of course.. but stop invading countries  ... all the luv to Cenk

 

 

 

by Ahmed Hassan on 06/14/2009 04:51:04 PM EST

Notice that the NYT article only cites an "new unofficial poll" without bothering to name sources? Well take a look at this

... a plurality of Iranians said they would vote for incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Note that the poll was conducted by independent european and american institutions, and that the results are perfectly consistent with the announced results. I like TYT for its superb "no bullshit" approach to the news, but sometimes their own bias shows. Its funny that Cenk compares Irans election margins with Americas and calls it "unheard of" when such margins happen all the time in countries decidedly MORE democratic than the USA (only 2 parties? you call that democratic?), for example any Southamerican country (yes, go look at the latest electoral results in, say, Bolivia). So thats that for the "incredible margins" argument. The rest is just pure especulation on Cenks part. The only reason for having any doubt about the results was the NYT article citing unnamed polls, yet the poll linked above, conducted by clearly independent parties, supports Ahmadinejads victory.

 The other interesting thing is the clear omission of class distinctions in MSM reporting. Yes, there are obvious protests in Tehran, what the MSM fails to tell you is that the protesters are mostly young upper class iranians, who, while having all the right in the world to protest, DO NOT represent Iranian society as a whole. Please compare this Iranian Calvin Klein Ad (thats some guerrilla marketing right there!):

 Shooting a sign of victory wrapped in green, with a Emo-styled hairdo and Calvin Klein underwear, this kid could be any American. This is the face of this election's voters. This is the face of today's Tehran.

(that description right there -from some Daily Kos blog - contains so much irony and reveals such an uncanny disconnection with the real world, Iran and USA, that the mind just boggles)

with this pictures of a pro-Ahmadinejad rally

tell me again who does "todays Tehran" represent?

The protesters should be able to protest anything they want, and the new government should hear their demands for a more open Iranian society etc. But to suggests that "the revolution" ocurring in Tehran represents the majority of Iranians, that the elections were rigged etc. need to - as Cenk likes to say - "calm down".

See also Barzegar at The Independent, Robert Fisk, and most other credible Middle East sources (like Al Jazeera)

PS: (Cenk voice) "Calm down!"

 

by hilbert on 06/14/2009 06:30:58 PM EST

Good Op Ed in the Washington Post.  http://www.washingtonpost.c om/wp-dyn/content/article/2 009/06/14/AR2009061401757.h tml?hpid=opinionsbox1

 

by dodenver2 on 06/15/2009 01:44:03 PM EST

It's time for you to lead in this regard.  At least put out a statement so other countries (i.e. Germany) can take action (thank you Canada) and organize.  I'm not saying you should initially take sides, but there must be some sort of review as soon as possible.  Revolution is one thing, but I get sickened when I see unnecessary heads get crushed.

by rev24 on 06/15/2009 05:18:21 PM EST

100% agree with Cenk

+  state television announced the results way before they could have counted the votes, remember they have paper ballots

it's so obvious it was rigged

the Iranian leadership should have learned from the Bush team how to succesfully rig an election without people exiting their couch to complain

by callisto on 06/15/2009 07:06:47 PM EST

I just got back from surfing and shit is going down in Tehran.  I'm doing my best to stay up with everything via twitter, facebook, and youtube since they have the media blackout going on.  CNN seems to be doing their best they can, and I can't believe MSNBC is running their typical weekend documentary.  Looks like there are very large protests across the States to show solidarity.  I'd like to see if there's one going on San Francisco, but I haven't heard of anything.  If anyone knows of any good sources for information, your help is much appreciated.  Keep posting news, images, videos, etc. for the world see.

Looks like helicopters are dropping acid on protesters, people are getting dragged out their homes, brutal beatings, cold killings, the list goes on.

by rev24 on 06/20/2009 06:05:31 PM EST

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