Stealing the Iranian Election, by Juan Cole

[jefferson_dem]

Saturday, June 13, 2009
Stealing the Iranian Election

Top Pieces of Evidence that the Iranian Presidential Election Was Stolen

1. It is claimed that Ahmadinejad won the city of Tabriz with 57%. His main opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is an Azeri from Azerbaijan province, of which Tabriz is the capital. Mousavi, according to such polls as exist in Iran and widespread anecdotal evidence, did better in cities and is popular in Azerbaijan. Certainly, his rallies there were very well attended. So for an Azeri urban center to go so heavily for Ahmadinejad just makes no sense. In past elections, Azeris voted disproportionately for even minor presidential candidates who hailed from that province.

2. Ahmadinejad is claimed to have taken Tehran by over 50%. Again, he is not popular in the cities, even, as he claims, in the poor neighborhoods, in part because his policies have produced high inflation and high unemployment. That he should have won Tehran is so unlikely as to raise real questions about these numbers.

3. It is claimed that cleric Mehdi Karoubi, the other reformist candidate, received 320,000 votes, and that he did poorly in Iran's western provinces, even losing in Luristan. He is a Lur and is popular in the west, including in Kurdistan. Karoubi received 17 percent of the vote in the first round of presidential elections in 2005. While it is possible that his support has substantially declined since then, it is hard to believe that he would get less than one percent of the vote. Moreover, he should have at least done well in the west, which he did not.

4. Mohsen Rezaie, who polled very badly and seems not to have been at all popular, is alleged to have received 670,000 votes, twice as much as Karoubi.

<SNIP>

http://juancole.com/2009/06/stealing-iranian-election.html

[Diane R]

1. Memories of Ohio and Florida.

[chimpymustgo]

4. Exactly (and quite a few other places much farther below the radar). Now will the non-believers open

their eyes? Election stealing happens all the time - through-out time.

[glitch]

2. K & R nt

[Stevepol]

3. Doing it with voting machines is more believable.

Instead of a landslide when everybody knows it's a close race, you just program a 1% or 2% win in key places and then make sure there's no audit or recount. At the same time, make sure the media call anybody who calls into question obvious discrepancies "tin foil hats."

etc.

[Karenina]

5. It's NOT who votes, it"s who COUNTS the votes...

Tante K. channeling Stalin or some such.

[SuperTrouper]

6. Ayatollah Khamenei is mishandling this election. This is not over, yet.

[janx]

8. Indeed it is not. According to Tehranbureau, the protests

and riots are continuing into the night.

http://tehranbureau.com/2009/06/13/alerts-from-tehran/

[AnnieBW]

7. Were they using Diebold voting machines?

I'm just sayin'...

[havocmom]

10. no need if one already had the boxes filled by their men and taken to their counters

just sayin ;)

[Cha]

9. Like a DUer commented last night..

they don't even try to make it believeable!

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. kick and recommended

[invictus]

12. K&R

[WillyT]

13. Big K & R !!!

:kick: