Conservatives Win in Iranian Election

by Mullah Kintyre Mon Mar 24, 2008 18:48

The granddaughter of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini comments on Iran and the elections.

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No recreation is available to us. Arrests are the order of the day. Students are secretly arrested and imprisoned in droves," the granddaughter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Zahra Eshraghi, told IPS in a telephone interview from Tehran. "The whole country is under pressured silence, begging to ask questions, but, unfortunately, no one in the regime is protesting," she said. "It may take many years for a person to destroy a country, but [hardliners] have managed to accomplish this in a just a few."

Since coming into office in 2005, Ahmadinejad has used the prospect of foreign threats --including the so-called "regime change" policy which has been pursued by the George W. Bush administration -- as a pretext to suppress his opponents and critics. This has been done through arrests of journalists, activists, and students. In addition, Iran's Guardian Council has halted Ahmadinejad's potential rivals from running for office by hand-picking the candidates

Her husband has been disqualified from running a reelection campaign; her brother-in law is out of power; and she has been asked by her family, who she says fear her forthright opinions, to refrain from speaking to the media.

Her last interview, with New York Times correspondent Elaine Sciolino in April 2003, sparked controversy when she was quoted as saying that she felt trapped by her family history and hated wearing the black veil known as the chador. Eshraghi, responding to protests initiated in the Iranian religious centre of Qom, later denied making the remarks. Her family also advised her not to pick fights with conservative hardliners, and she has put aside the idea of creating a blog.

by Mullah Kintyre Mon Mar 24, 2008 18:02

1. Nearly 90 percent of "independent and reformist candidates", including 19 sitting MP's and Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson, Ali Eshraghi, were disqualified by the the Supervisory and Executive Election Boards. AFP. 14 Mar 08.

2. The Guardian Council disqualified some 1,700 candidates for insufficient loyalty to Islam and Iranian Revolution of 1979. ISN 14 Feb 08.

3. "The Iranian authorities are effectively rigging the elections by stacking the candidate lists. It’s clear Iranian voters won’t have a free say in choosing their representatives. "
Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division

by Mullah Kintyre Mon Mar 24, 2008 17:07

Come off it. Thousands of candidates were prevented from standing. Only a convinced supporter of the present Iranian Regime would suggest it was a fair election.

by Bazooka Joe Mon Mar 24, 2008 13:36

Candidates are not 'uniformly conservative'. Many Reformists stood too. They just didn't get votes. President Mohammad Khatami who succeded President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a reformist.

As for the elections being rigged, this is western propaganda. The head of a Reformist Coalition Electoral Headquarters, Hossein Marashi, is on record as saying, "WE ARE SURE THAT THE ELECTION WAS FREE AND FAIR. We also reject US and British news agencies' claim that the reformists have plan to withdraw. IT'S A MERE LIE."

In fact, because of the millions who turned out to vote across Iran Interior Ministry officials extended the opening time of the polls five times until 11pm, so that everyone could vote. This was a massive vote of support from the Iranian people for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad but it does not suit the anti-Iranian propagandists to admit this.

The Iranian people have spoken. Hands off the Iranian people and their democratically elected government!

by Jim Sun Mar 23, 2008 14:03

The Islamic clergy control the selection of candidates who are uniformly conservative.
Nobody who questions the oppressive political influence of Islamic theocrats can ever stand for election.
Iran is not a democracy.