Thread: Ahmadinejad's allies struggle in Iran elections

Originally Posted by troung

Ahmadinejad's allies struggle in Iran elections

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's allies failed to dominate elections for a powerful Iranian clerical body and local councils, early results showed on Sunday, in what analysts said was a setback to the president's standing.

Friday's twin elections for the clerical Assembly of Experts and local councils, the first nationwide vote since Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, will not directly impact policy. But turnout of around 60 percent and Ahmadinejad's close identification with some candidates, particularly in Tehran, suggested a shift toward more moderate policies and away from the president's ultra-conservative line.

Although not Iran most powerful figure, Ahmadinejad's anti- Israel and anti-Western statements alarm the West, which fears Iran is seeking an atomic bomb despite Tehran's denials. "The results show that voters have learned from the past and concluded that we need to support ... moderate figures," the daily Kargozaran said in an editorial. Kargozaran is close to former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate cleric who state media said led the count in Tehran for the Assembly of Experts. Rafsanjani lost to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential race.

Lower down the list but still with enough votes to retain a seat, was Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, a firebrand cleric who advocates cultural isolation from the West and is widely seen as the spiritual mentor of Ahmadinejad.

Two candidates, identified by clerics as Mesbah-Yazdi allies, were out of the running in Tehran, the official IRNA news agency said. Three Mesbah-Yazdi supporters lost in other regions though at least one was known to have secured a seat.

"This is a blow for Ahmadinejad and Mesbah-Yazdi's list," said one political analyst, who declined to be quoted by name.
"NO TO RADICALS"

The Assembly of Experts has more power than the president or parliament because it supervises the supreme leader. But conservative clerics have tended to keep it out of everyday politics and analysts say this is likely to
remain the case.

Friday's main battleground was Tehran City Council, where Ahmadinejad supporters competed against backers of a more moderate conservative, Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
Final results for Tehran are not expected until Tuesday but partial tallies reported by Iranian news agencies showed Qalibaf's group dominating with about nine of the 15 seats.

The rest were split between Ahmadinejad backers and the pro-reform camp, seeking a comeback after being routed in a series of polls.
Reformists said they had won at least six Tehran seats, and demanded election officials announce the results. They said the delay raised questions about the counting process.

"We have serious doubts about whether these problems are due to a lack of organization at the Interior Ministry or whether there are some efforts to tamper with votes," Mohammad Ali Najafi, a reformist candidate in Tehran, told Reuters.

Analysts said the outcome could boost moderate conservatives who say Ahmadinejad is trying to monopolize power around his close allies and ignoring the rest of the conservative camp.
"It is a signal for Ahmadinejad," said conservative commentator Amir Mohebian, who added that the president was still popular in the provinces.

By Edmund Blair Sun Dec 17, 11:07 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061217/...n_elections_dc

I keep tellin y'all Iranians are one of the more saner people amongst Muslims. They are just being backed into a corner and they are doing what almost any Muslim citizen of any country would do; support his kind against the foreigner.

Bravo!

Originally Posted by Asim Aquil

I keep tellin y'all Iranians are one of the more saner people amongst Muslims. They are just being backed into a corner and they are doing what almost any Muslim citizen of any country would do; support his kind against the foreigner.

Is it sanity to advocate Israel be expunged from the map of the world?
To have a legal system that lets a judge sentence a girl to the gallows for killing the man who was raping her?
Maybe your definition of sanity differs from the norm!

Well critics of Israel point out that the Iranian President was referring to Israeli control to be wiped off the map of the world. Also I don't know what the legalities of Iranian law but the people there are more western like than most other Muslims.

Just because people with an agenda just choose to show you women with burkhas and crazy Ayatollahs doesn't mean thats all there is to them.

Originally Posted by Asim Aquil

Well critics of Israel point out that the Iranian President was referring to Israeli control to be wiped off the map of the world. Also I don't know what the legalities of Iranian law but the people there are more western like than most other Muslims.

Just because people with an agenda just choose to show you women with burkhas and crazy Ayatollahs doesn't mean thats all there is to them.

Asim, you're probably correct in that much of the general population are more pro-western then we usually imagine.
It has been stated in numorous articles by people in the know about conditions inside Iran, that the sentiment there is far less anti-Israel then most places in the Mid-East.
But the problem remains that the it is the hard-liners who are in control, and are the ones who set the agenda, and they are the ones with their fingers on the triggers.
If push came to shove they would have the force necessary to compell the rest of the population to follow their dictates.

Originally Posted by Amled

Is it sanity to advocate Israel be expunged from the map of the world?
To have a legal system that lets a judge sentence a girl to the gallows for killing the man who was raping her?
Maybe your definition of sanity differs from the norm!

Iran's Democracy is just for show. It'd be like having Hitler and Mussolini on a ticket and having to decide which one you want. It's still an oligarchy with all power in the hands of the Clerics. Even then they disqualify all candidates that do not agree with them.

Originally Posted by Amled

If push came to shove they would have the force necessary to compell the rest of the population to follow their dictates.

If it came to defending the existence and sovereignty of Iran, then yes.

Originally Posted by Alamgir

If it came to defending the existence and sovereignty of Iran, then yes.

If force is necessary to compell the majority of a nations populance to stand up and defend said nation, then something is very wrong indeed!

Iran Confirms Rafsanjani's Election Victory

Iran's Interior Ministry has released the final results of the December 15 elections for the Assembly of Experts that oversees the work of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a moderate conservative, garnered more than 1.5 million votes, which is the most of any candidate.

Rafsanjani is a fierce opponent of hard-line President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, and his victory is regarded by observers as a setback for the president.

Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor, Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, is in sixth place with close to 900,000 votes. However he has enough votes to retain a seat in the 86-member clerical body.


http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle...17205426a.html

Iran Vote a Setback for President’s Hard Line



TEHRAN, Dec. 18 — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffered a significant setback in nationwide elections held on Friday for municipal councils and a key supervisory body, with voters evidently rebuking him for failing to deliver on promises to improve the economy.

Although results from the councils were still coming in on Monday, the tally so far indicated that candidates from the reformist and pragmatic conservative camps — the two main groups opposing the populist, hard-line president — emerged stronger from the vote. Presidential allies took a drubbing in important cities.

Municipal elections reflect the voters’ feelings on basic concerns like growing unemployment and the slumping real estate market, according to analysts inside Iran and overseas. Domestic problems eclipse the more notorious issues to which the president has drawn international attention, like developing nuclear technology or questioning the Holocaust.

“He has been trying to make himself indispensable by the grandiose issues, but his fate is much more tied to these bread and butter issues,” said Vali Nasr, the author of “The Shia Revival” and a professor of Middle Eastern politics at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. “It’s not a fall for Ahmadinejad, but it’s clearly a stumble; there is no momentum coming out of his election in 2005.”

Two contenders in that 2005 presidential election could claim important victories this time around, both seen as setbacks for the president. One, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, himself a former president, won an overwhelming victory to head the 86-member Assembly of Experts. While it has little day-to-day power, the assembly could end up choosing the next supreme leader, the religious figure whose word is virtually law.

The other, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who succeeded Mr. Ahmadinejad as mayor of Tehran, and who has been hinting at corruption in the previous government, was almost certain to retain his post. He is seen as a “pragmatic conservative.”

“The fact that the reformists and the pragmatic conservatives can produce this kind of performance in an election means they have life in them and that President Ahmadinejad is vulnerable on several fronts,” Mr. Nasr said.

Reformist politicians beat hard-liners in at least five important city councils, including Kerman, Sari, Zanjan, Ahwaz and Bandar Abbas.

“I think the first message of people’s vote on Friday was that people still favor reforms,” said Mohammad Atrainfar, a reformist politician. “The second message was that populist appeals have failed.”

The president’s office sought to play down the results. A government spokesman, Gholamhossein Elham, said Monday that the government had not favored any particular slate.

The most intriguing race, and the biggest prize, is the 15-member Tehran City Council, with Mayor Qalibaf’s slate expected to dominate. Mehrdad Bazrpash, an adviser to the president, failed to attract voters, but the president’s sister, Parvin Ahmadinejad, who has no political background, was in 11th place.

Reformists, who support constitutional change to dilute the power of the clerics, captured four of the 15 seats in Tehran. That led them to protest the possibility of tampering, because results are taking longer than expected and an Ahmadinejad ally is in charge of the count. Reformists tend to do well when the turnout is high; this time about 60 percent of eligible voters went to the polls.

Final results for the Assembly of Experts show that more than 65 candidates close to Mr. Rafsanjani won. A cleric considered the president’s spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Muhammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, won a seat, but few of his allies did.

In the inexact science of reading alliances within the competing circles of mullahs and military men, there have been signs that the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is not enchanted with the bruising the president is giving Iran’s reputation abroad.

Some Ahmadinejad allies were disqualified as candidates before the vote, and a protest against the president when he visited a Tehran university this month was shown on state television, which the supreme leader controls. He continues to praise the government in public.

Mr. Ahmadinejad had promised to distribute oil wealth more evenly, providing hospitals, schools and jobs, and to crack down on corruption. None has been realized.

The tension between the president and Tehran’s mayor creates an interesting dynamic because both were Revolutionary Guards.

Mr. Ahmadinejad is more identified with the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary force drawn mostly from the working poor, whereas Mr. Qalibaf was the head of the air force and projects a more sophisticated image friendly to business executives.

So the question is whether the supreme leader, and by extension the ruling circle of clerics and military men, sees the populist or the more business-oriented route as the path Iran should take. The slates that won in some municipal councils were claimed by both reformists and Mr. Qalibaf’s followers, and analysts are waiting to see if that alliance holds for next year’s parliamentary vote.

“The significance of this election is that we now have a complete new alignment — the reformists, the Rafsanjani camp and the conservative bazaar elements,” said Abbas Milani, chairman of Iranian studies at Stanford University. “That is a de facto coalition whose purpose is to stop Ahmadinejad from doing further damage, both domestically and internationally.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/19/wo......nyt&emc=rss

There is a moderate man inside many Iranians trying to get out but dam those hard liners!