Ahmadinejad Heading For Victory In Iran Vote

[Purveyor]

Source: Agence France-Presse

TEHRAN (AFP) — Hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was heading for victory in Iran's presidential election, official results showed, as his supporters early Saturday began celebrating in the streets of Tehran.

With 61 percent of total ballot boxes counted, amounting to 21,170,263 votes, Ahmadinejad held a commanding lead, receiving 14,011,664 votes, or 66.18 percent of the total.

That compared with 6,575,844, or 31.06 percent for his closest challenger, moderate ex-premier Mir Hossein Mousavi, said Kamran Daneshjoo, chairman of the electoral commission at the interior ministry.

Former Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezai remained a distant third, with 397,117 votes, or 1.87 percent. Ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi remained in fourth place with 185,578, or 0.87 percent.

As it became clear that the reformist Mousavi's bid to halt Ahmadinejad's drive for a second term at the helm of the Islamic republic was faltering, the president's supporters began pouring onto the streets of Tehran, honking their horns and waving Iranian flags.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hr77qp2spOwSHN6yvOSYPi6tjGQg

[Catamount]

1. That really sucks big-time!

www.savethefrogs.com

[Purveyor]

2. Indeed! eom

[David__77]

3. I hope the US restores full relations with Iran.

This has to happen soon.

[pjt7]

4. I think Iran was forced into voting for the nutty guy

Israel has a nut in office & he's itching to attack.

[abq e streeter]

6. Excellent point--as we all know--EVERYTHING is ultimately Israel's fault

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[pjt7]

7. Israel has fighter jets lined up to bomb Iran

That's a fact of life, every Iranian voter had to consider.

Sorry if you don't like that.

[abq e streeter]

13. But I do like it--- I just won 10 bucks on a bet that there were "progressives"

who would shortly defend Ahmadinejad and blame Israel for however their "election" turned out. Thank you .

[pjt7]

14. Iran voted to protect itself with it's hard-liner

& I don't like Ahmadinjad & haven't been defending him.

Lay off the weed!

[abq e streeter]

17. "lay off the weed" ...wow, I'm dealing with a heavy duty intellectual here

but good point made about voting for a "hard-liner" ( let's be polite and not call him a holocaust-denying fundamentalist lunatic though). By your excellent logic Israel is perfectly justified in selecting right wing war-mongerers like Netanyahu to lead them and for that matter, its understandable that we chose "hard-liners" Bush and Cheney to lead us....after all, there are threats out there we need hard-liners to protect us from too....

[MrBig]

22. By your same logic

Israel had to vote for Netanyahu since they had rockets being fired into their country by Hamas, not to mention statements by other certain foreign leaders about wiping them off the map.

It goes both ways. You can't hold the people of one country to one standard without holding others to the same standard.

[Ian David]

5. Did he sue to stop the recount in Florida? n/t

[AverageJoe5]

8. Ahmadinejad is good for Iran

The U.S. and Israel loathe Ahmadinejad because he promotes his nation's interests (as he should) rather than promoting the interests of the U.S. and Israel

[Ian David]

10. Aside from the fact that he's batshit-crazy and morbidly ignorant.

He's like The Michelle Bachmann of Iran.

[abq e streeter]

12. Always encouraging to see the many apologists for religious fundamentalist nutcases on DU

C'mon ,how 'bout some kind words for Pat Robertson, James Dobson and the rest too.

[Trajan]

16. ?

So ... loathing him because he is a dangerous, deluded, crazy Religionist fascist muthafucka is not permitted ?

Aw shucks ..... Here I am, a free thinking progressive, toeing the Likudnik line against Ahmadinejad without knowing it ....

FUCK ! .... I am SO fucked !

(Good for Iran ?? ... Cmon)

[MrBig]

20. Hahahahahahahahahahaha

Please tell me you are joking!!! Or do you play "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" game too?

I didn't realize it was in Iran's interest to alienate other nations and poison their own standing in the world. Nor did I realize it was in Iran's interest to attempt to make ridiculous statements about foreign policies and to hold conferences questioning the Holocaust all to take the peoples' eyes off the increasing financial crisis that is taking place in Iran. Oh, and I'm sure it's in the best interests of Iran's female population to continue to be discriminated against.

Please do some research before posting such ridiculous comments

[MrBig]

21. duplicate n/t

[GoesTo11]

25. Yes, his crackdown is a great victory for the Iranian people.

They would rather have a dictator who really hates Israel instead of a reformer who also hates Israel but not as much. Whatever, I guess. If the people of Iran really deserve better than Ahmadinejad, they will overthrow their government.

[FailureToCommunicate]

9. It ain't over till the fat lady on their Supreme Court TELLS them who won!

Sorry, I know I should "get over" BUSH v GORE and the last horrible 8 years but I'm only slowly coming 'round...

[Ian David]

11. They'll just behead the fat lady. n/t

[UpInArms]

15. that with only approximately 20 percent of the votes counted

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20090612_red_alert_irans_election_results_open_access/?utm_source=RedAlert&utm_campaign=none&utm_medium=email

The Iranian election is currently in turmoil. Both Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi are claiming to be ahead in the vote. Preliminary results from the presidential vote show Ahmadinejad leading; Iranian Election Commission chief Kamran Daneshjoo held a press conference at 11:45 p.m. local time and announced that with some 20 percent of the votes counted, the president was leading with 3,462,548 votes (69.04 percent), while his main challenger, Mousavi, had 1, 425,678 (28.42 percent). Sources tell STRATFOR that these preliminary numbers pertain to the votes from the smaller towns and villages, where the president has considerable influence, as he has distributed a lot of cash to the poor.

However, Iran’s state-run Press TV is saying that only 10 million of 24 million votes, or around 42 percent of the vote, have been counted. At the same time, they are also claiming that 69 percent of the vote has been counted. Obviously the numbers are not adding up, and the agencies themselves appear to be in chaos.

Prior to the announcement of the results, Mousavi held a press conference in which he said he was the winner of the election. The opposition camp is greatly concerned about fraud, and STRATFOR has been told that Mousavi has vowed to resist any fraud, even if it entails taking to the streets. This means there is considerable risk of unrest should Ahmadinejad emerge as the winner. But so far there is no evidence that the government is mobilizing security forces to deal with any such eventuality.

...more...

[UTUSN]

18. Oh shit. I sort of suspected it when MSRNC said the opposite. n/t

[New Dawn]

19. Iran's president has 65% of the vote with 80% counted.

It is very safe to say that he has easily won re-election.

[CreekDog]

23. Depends how you define "won"

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/06/12/tehran-butterflies/


Swampland – TIME.com
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 10:18 am
Tehran Butterflies
Posted by Karen Tumulty | Comments (11) | Permalink | Trackbacks (1) | Email This

(I'm posting this for Joe Klein, who emails it in from Tehran:)

I've just returned from a day of poll-watching in various Tehran neighborhoods. The lines are long...but I'm worried that the votes might not be counted correctly. In fact, we may be headed for a government-rigged Palm Beach County-style election controversy. Here's the problem:

The candidates are listed by name and by number...and also by code. You vote by writing down the candidate's name and then his...what? Number...or code? No one is quite sure. The leading reformer, Mir-Hussein Moussavi, has the number 4 and the code 777. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has the number 1 and the code 444. So the question arises: If you vote for Moussavi and list his number as 4...have you actually voted for Ahmadinejad? And why on earth have they devised such a complicated ballot in the first place?

A representative of the Guardian's Council, which is monitoring the polling stations, told me at the Hossein Ershad Mosque in North Tehran that none of this mattered. "Only the name on the ballot matters," she said.

Let's hope so.

[Odin2005]

24. What's the Farsi word for "Diebolded"?