Iran extends poll hours due to high turnout in presidential vote

[JI7]

Source: the financial

According to RIA Novosti, the Iranian Election Commission has decided to keep polls open for an additional two hours on June 12 due to the high turnout in presidential elections.

The polls were due to close at 18:00 local time (13:30 GMT) and lines were reported early on as Iranians chose between hard-line incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the leading challenger, reformist former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Two other candidates, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohsen Rezaei, are also on the ballot, but are not expected to receive more than a small percentage of the vote.

The contest between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi could be close, however, and it is possible voting could be extended at some polling stations. If the winner does not get more than 50% of the vote, a runoff will take place next week.

Read more: http://finchannel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40031&Itemid=13

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[annabanana]

1. This sounds like good news for Mousavi.. and WHERE did you

get that hysterical cross-eyed pic of Ahmadinejad?

[Just-plain-Kathy]

2. I see the Iranians are proving they have a democracy...

...I guess we can't liberate them.

[Soylent Brice]

4. oh, don't count that out just yet.

here in the old US of A, where there's a will (and a thoroughly funded propaganda campaign) there's a way.

[No Elephants]

5. We already liberated them from democracy and gave them a Shah. Our work is never done, I guess.

Take up the white man's burden.

[Vidar]

7. Last time we did that, we overthrew their democracy, & imposed the Shah on them.

[bdamomma]

3. oh, I hope Mr. Mousavi wins.

[benld74]

6. I predict,,,

a statistical tie, with votes recounted, examined by members of both factions until a group of Supreme Clerics will rules that Ole Lazy Eye wins.

[LeftishBrit]

8. Wonder if Ahmadinejad has a brother called Jeb...

[JI7]

9. check this out

<Ahmadinejad's sister, Parvin Ahmadinejad, is a deputy adviser to the presidential's women's center. Ahmadinejad's brother, Davud Ahmadinejad, is a chief inspector with the presidential inspection unit. And Ahmadinejad's nephew, Ali Akbar Mehrabian, is the mining and industry minister.

The chart also shows that a number of government jobs are held by relatives of Ahmadinejad's senior adviser and campaign manager, Mojtaba Samareh.

Samareh's brother, Abdolhamid Hashemi Samareh, is a deputy industry minister. And one of Samareh's sisters-in-law is an adviser on family issues at the Interior Ministry.>

http://www.rferl.org/content/Ahmadinejads_Family_Justice/1749454.html

[southshore]

10. Long lines at the polls....

Iran can keep the polls open so that everyone who showed up before the closing time (those already in line) will have their chance to vote.

Now the USA on the other hand would have to have a protracted court battle.

[David__77]

11. These are all pro-Islamic Republic candidates.

The promotion of Mr. Mousavi as a "reformer" is for Western consumption, as well as a means to divert the struggle in Iran into electoral, pro-government politics. I suppose there would be some positive moves incrementally in the social/cultural affairs, but perhaps some backward moves in the economic realm were he to win. It's really a mixed bag either way.