In a makeshift Afghan teahouse, Iranian truckers debate election

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In a makeshift Afghan teahouse, Iranian truckers debate election

By Philip Smucker | McClatchy Newspapers


HERAT, Afghanistan — Amid the tire irons and crowbars in a disabled Russian armored personnel carrier-turned Afghan teahouse, Iranian truck drivers Wednesday debated allegations that their government rigged Iran's June 12 presidential elections — and whether it did so by the thousands or by the millions.

"Of course, the government controls the media — that is how they rose to power," snapped Jaffar, 59, a driver from Mashad, a major city in western Iran. "You can drive north to south in this country, and you are free. Our government would never cheat us out of an election."

As Jaffar spoke, however, Maruche, 29, a Sunni Muslim truck driver from near Torbat e-Jam in eastern Iran, asked the older driver: "How can you say there was no cheating?"

The young man stormed out of the teahouse, but he invited a McClatchy reporter to sit with him in the cab of his truck. He said that on Tuesday new anti-government demonstrations had rocked the city of Isfahan, where his trucking company is based, and he spoke angrily of what he said had happened in his village on election day.

"The election center was controlled by the government," he said. "We saw that with our own eyes. I know about the ballot stuffing because my uncle is a police officer and was a supervisor in the polling station. He saw one man in the polling station put 100 ballots into a box."

"No one can dare protest this in our village or they will simply disappear," Maruche added.

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