Iran: Massive protests in response to Ahmadinejad sweeping elections.

1.44

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They sure but even after all their screaming about Iran's nuke program?
Doesn't seem likely.
 

Yusuf

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Confirms what I had said earlier. The Ayatollahs will decide what's to be done. They will prefer a hawk like A-jad, rather than a moderate in Mousavi.
 
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too bad if moderates had come in and improved relations with USA it could have a positive impact regionally and reduced pakistan's importance in afghanistan.
 

Yusuf

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Even if a moderate comes to power, it will not change Irans foreign policy which is decided by the clergy. Mohammed Khatami was a moderate but still nothing changed in Iran.
 

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The major power players in the election

Wednesday, 10 Jun, 2009 | 04:04 PM PST |


Iran's presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi (L) and Mehdi Karroubi (R)
embrace following a televised presidential debate in Tehran on late June 7, 2009.
Mousavi and Karroubi, two reformist candidates, united against incumbent
Ahmadinejad during the debate, accusing him of lying and putting the country in danger. — AFP




Supreme Leader

Ali Khamanei, the current Iranian Supreme Leader has established his reputation as a hardliner, particularly after his role in blocking many of the attempts for reform made by former President Khatami, Ahmadinejad’s predecessor. With the power to approve candidates running for the election, as well as the ability to curtail legislation and mobilize the Revolutionary Guard and other paramilitary forces, the Supreme Leader is the true power center within Iran.

Shrouded in secrecy, Khamanei keeps his preferences unknown to a large extent, though rumors regarding his relationship with President Ahmadinejad are rife. Many claim the relationship between the two men has been strained at times, with Khamanei unhappy at some of Ahmadinejad’s more explosive rhetoric.



The Presidency

The highest elected official in Iran and head of the executive branch, the President does have a large role in formulating policies and running Iran – as long as the Supreme Leader agrees.



Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

President of Iran since 2005, this former mayor of Tehran and former commander in the Revolutionary Guard has become infamous for his denial of the holocaust and fiery rhetoric on the world stage. Within Iran, Ahmadinejad commands much support amongst the rural poor, who see him as a common man.

Supported by fellow conservatives, Ahmadinejad has sought to revive Iran’s role as a revolutionary state, after the reforms attempted by his predecessor. He has stepped up Iranian support for militant groups in Iraq and Lebanon as well as work on Iran’s nuclear program, all moves that have angered much of the international community.

In the 2005 election Ahmadinejad was viewed as a relative novice and surprised many – reportedly including Iran’s Supreme Leader – when he managed to win in the second round. Opponents claim his win was dependent on a large part to support – and possibly rigging – by the Basij, a hardline paramilitary force that works with the Revolutionary Guard.



Mir Hossein Mousavi

Mousavi, who served as Prime Minister during Iran's 1980-88 war with neighboring Iraq and is seen as Ahmadinejad's main challenger. He has accused the president of squandering a surge in oil revenues and advocates better ties with the West, but rejects demands that Tehran halt sensitive nuclear work, Reuters say.

While his long years away from the political stage mean few young voters can remember his premiership, he has picked up significant youth support as the leading reformist candidate. Backed by former Presidents Khatami and Rafsanjani, both of whom are very popular amongst reformers, the former amateur artist and specialist in Islamic architecture is expected to present a formidable challenge to the hard-line incumbent.

His campaign, according to the Associated Press, has used internet resources as well as youth networks to engage and mobilize many of Iran’s disenchanted youth, who form a core of his base.



Mehdi Karroubi

A former speaker of the Iranian Parliament, and cleric, Mehdi Karroubi is also a leading reformist candidate, campaigning on the need to bring change to Iran. With views similar to that of Mousavi, Karroubi has also criticized Ahmadinjead’s handling of Iran, though he enjoys much less support than the other reform candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Enjoying greater support amongst in the rural areas, Karroubi is expected to take many of the reformist votes from Mousavi, according to AP, but is not expected to make it to the second round run-off.



Mohsen Rezai

This former economist and current Secretary of the Expediency Council — a governmental body tasked with advising the Supreme Leader and liaising with the Iranian parliament is significantly more conservative than Mousavi and Karroubi. Especially critical of Ahmadinejad’s handling of the Iranian economy — which has seen rising unemployment and inflation — Rezai has made economic affairs the center of his campaign.

As with Karroubi, though AP reports it is likely Rezai will chip away at many of Ahmadinejad’s more conservative supporters, he is not expected to gain enough votes to make it to the June 19th run-off vote.


DAWN.COM | World | The major power players in the election

Image Courtesy: Self-compiled: Huffington-Post, LA Times, and the Persian Carpet Guide
 

p2prada

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I am sure Ahmedinejad won it fair and square. The opposition's a bad loser. This infighting has enabled the US to influence world opinion in the opposition's favor.

An 85% turnout only means the rural folk came out in high numbers. Am not surprised.

Hopefully, his foreign policy banter in the second term is better than Obama's.
 

Rage

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Iran Election: What Is At Stake

Huffington Post | Stuart Whatley
06- 1-09 04:10 PM l




The question weighing on many foreign policymakers' minds for Iran's June 12 presidential election, in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will try to secure over 50 percent of the vote against three other candidates, is: what is at stake? For the past four years Ahmadinejad has captured the world's attention with his bombastic rhetoric in defense of Iran's contentious nuclear program. However, domestically, Iran's troubled economy -- plagued by high inflation and unemployment -- often matches nuclear development on many Iranians' list of priority issues. Thus, the significance of Iran's president for the next four years ultimately depends on one's perspective and priorities.

As far as the economy is concerned, there is much room for improvement. According to Reuters:

Ahmadinejad's spending policies have been criticised as inflationary and wasteful of windfall oil revenue earned by the world's fifth biggest crude exporter. He has promised to alleviate poverty and reduce dependence on oil income, which accounts for 80 percent of hard currency earnings. His power base rests on poorer segments of Iran's 70 million people.


Djavad Salehi-Isfahani of the Brookings Institution, for his part, believes the outcome of June's election will have a slight bearing on Iran's future economic policy, but that "choices are limited" regardless. Writes Salehi-Isfahani:

"The lessons learned by Iranians during this most recent populist-managed oil boom may become clear in June, when the outcomes of the election come to light. The precise course the economy will take in the next few years depends on who is elected, but choices are limited. Not surprisingly, the candidates are not talking about what they will do if elected, and the current Ahmadinejad administration is postponing adjustment until after the election."




Nevertheless, as the June 12 presidential election approaches, all three of Ahmadinejad's rivals have brought foreign policy (and thus, what matters more to Western officials) more to the forefront by criticizing the incumbent for needlessly provoking international censure -- meaning the election may be a referendum on the past four years' foreign policy, rather than economics. So says Iran expert Farideh Farhi of the University of Hawaii in an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations' Bernard Gwertzman:

"More than anything else it makes a difference in Iran who is elected president in terms of foreign policy. The three candidates who are running against Mr. Ahmadinejad are all running on a platform that questions Mr. Ahmadinejad's bombastic foreign policy style. They question his emphasis on issues surrounding the Holocaust and his approach to Iran's nuclear negotiations even though they may not question Iran's stance in the negotiations. They have all taken a more moderate stance in terms of how Iran's foreign policy should be conducted.

All three candidates have used the language of détente with the outside world. Mr. Karroubi made a statement that he would reestablish relations with all countries of the world with the exception of Israel. Foreign policy unexpectedly has become a very important issue in Iran and obviously centers on the argument that Mr. Ahmadinejad has been unduly provocative. Of course Ahmadinejad himself takes the opposite view, saying he is in fact the one who has inserted foreign policy in the Iranian campaign by suggesting what the past administration has done, particularly Mr. [Mohammad] Khatami's administration in its negotiations with the United States, was shamefu
l."​


However, Iran's actual nuclear and foreign policy is dictated by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the candidates themselves have pointed out. Thus, what is at stake in the election is not so much what the policy will be going forth, but rather, how it will be negotiated and presented to the international community.

Indeed, the role Khamenei plays in Iranian politics, though often understated, should not be underestimated. Akbar Ganji, an Iranian journalist who was a political prisoner from 2000 to 2006, writing in the November/December 2008 Foreign Affairs, doesn't seem to think Iran's president amounts to squat:

The real decision-maker in Iran is Supreme Leader Khamenei not President Ahmadinejad. Blaming Iran's problems on President Ahmadinejad inaccurately suggests that Iran's problems will go away when Ahmadinejad does.​


As it happens, a similar sentiment is perhaps implied by the Obama administration's approach to Iran thus far. As CNN reported in May, the administration wanted engagement talks with Iran to actually begin before the Iranian election, indicating that Obama is willing to begin talks with one president while continuing them with another. This willingness, needless to say, suggests that who sits in the Iranian presidential seat doesn't really matter much to the administration. And indeed, as the Wall Street Journal reported in March:




American and European officials say Mr. Khamenei is the only Iranian leader who can make the ultimate decision to suspend or freeze Iran's nuclear program.

"The key issue is now to find a channel to Khamenei," said a senior Western diplomat briefed on the Obama administration's policy review in recent days. "If the supreme leader moves, he's going to do it in a very prudent and incremental way."


History tends to support the above. Popular reformist former president Muhammad Khatami -- who entered this year's election only to withdraw and support Mousavi -- entered office in 1997 as a surprise victor on the promise for change. However, over the course of two terms Khatami's reformist ambition proved inadequate to overcome Iran's entrenched powers. As The Economist puts it:

At the time, Mr Khatami's double electoral triumph was seen as a rebuke to the harder ideologues who had dominated revolutionary Iran's hybrid theo-democracy. His fractious reformists, however, proved no match for the conservatives entrenched in the power structure. Not only did they block most reforms. They also succeeded in pinning blame for their failure on the reformists themselves and in alienating enough voters to pave the way for Mr Ahmadinejad's ascent.


But despite the lesson of history, there are still some who regard the upcoming election with much import and anticipation. For example, historian Mohammed Javad Mozafar, speaking to Newsweek's Maziar Bahari at a rally for reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, comes off as more fatalistic. From Newsweek:

"The choice is now between democracy and an authoritarian government," said Mohammed Javad Mozafar, a historian in the crowd at Milad Hall. "If Ahmadinejad wins, that means the end of this reformist dream for a while. Many of these young people will be depressed and even leave the country. But if Mousavi wins, that means the citizens have won despite Ahmadinejad's deceitful policies and the support he receives from above." Although Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei doesn't stoop to publicly endorsing a candidate, few Iranians doubt that Ahmadinejad is his man.



Others who are eagerly awaiting the June 12 election as an opportunity for a new era are Iranian human rights advocates, who have been increasingly subjected to government heavy-handedness at the behest of the Ahmadinejad administration. According to AFP:

It is no easy matter battling for human rights in Iran, which has grown increasingly suspicious of such groups, but activists hope this month's presidential election will mean a more tolerant government. Under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is seeking re-election on June 12, Iran has seen scores of feminists, rights campaigners and student activists jailed on suspicion of "harming national security" and anti-regime propaganda.

"We expect the next government to provide a safe environment where activists can work without intimidation," activist and freelance journalist Asieh Amini told AFP in an interview.


The answer to the question that asks what is at stake probably falls somewhere in the middle of these two perspectives. The Iranian president's policymaking power is subject to the direct oversight of the Supreme Leader, especially in foreign policy matters, but this is not to say the president is powerless. As Ahmadinejad clearly demonstrated, the president can be the face and voice for the entire nation -- and how he behaves with the international community has a direct effect on the issues that are most important to Iranians. Moreover, the president does actually have more leeway to implement domestic -- economic and human rights -- policies as he sees fit. Ahmadinejad demonstrated this fact as well with his far-reaching, populist economic reforms that are now subject to such criticism. The outcome on June 12 will not change the world in a day, but it should not be readily dismissed either.


Iran Election: What Is At Stake
 

Pintu

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BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran reformists held after street clashes

Iran reformists held after street clashes

John Simpson reports from Tehran

Up to 100 members of Iranian reformist groups have been arrested, accused of orchestrating violence after the disputed presidential election result.

Backers of defeated reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi were rounded up overnight, reports said, including the brother of ex-President Khatami.

Mr Mousavi's whereabouts are unknown but he is thought to remain free.

Crowds took to the streets of Tehran on Saturday to protest against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

There were clashes between protesters and police in Tehran, despite calls from Mr Mousavi to avoid violence.

He has refused to accept the election result, calling it a "dangerous charade" and alleging wide-scale irregularities.

Mr Ahmadinejad is due to hold a news conference on Sunday before attending what is expected to be a huge victory rally.

Lock down

Details of the arrests remained sketchy, but reports said those detained were members of pro-reformist political parties which had backed Mr Mousavi during the election campaign.

The reformists - said to include the brother of former President Mohammed Khatmai, a former government spokesman and a former deputy speaker of parliament - were said to have been taken from their homes by security forces overnight.

Iran's state news agency, Irna, said those arrested were involved in orchestrating Saturday's protests in Tehran.

The streets of the Iranian capital were reported to be calm on Sunday morning, but the BBC's Jon Leyne, in the city, says concrete barriers are being erected in the streets.

Senior Iranian political figures have offered their backing to Mr Ahmadinejad, among them parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani, the head of the judiciary and one of his defeated rivals.

Mohsen Rezai, who won just 1.7% of the vote, declared that Mr Ahmadinejad had been elected president by "legal procedures".

"I will support him in a bid to prevent any delays in the provision of services to the people," Mr Rezai said in a statement.

The president already has the backing of the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who endorsed his election win on Saturday.

Our correspondent says the expressions of support for Mr Ahmadinejad could be an attempt to "lock down" support for the president within Iran's divided political establishment.
 

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No fraud in Iranian elections: Ahmadinejad - Middle East - World - The Times of India

No fraud in Iranian elections: Ahmadinejad


14 Jun 2009, 1932 hrs IST, IANS

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday rejected the opposition's claims of electoral fraud, saying his re-election was "real and free" and could not be questioned.

In his first press conference since the interior ministry announced he won a landslide victory in Friday's balloting, the hardline president said: "The election was free (transparent) and there is no document proving these charges."

Dissmissing the his main opponent Mir-Hossein Moussavi's accusations that the government
carried out massive irregularities during the whole electoral process, Ahmadinejad said: "It is really ridiculous that the loser of the election claims that majority of the votes belong to him. This is really absurd."

He also slammed the foreign media for biased reporting of the election.

"The western media and press only approved of that version of democracy which would produce their desirable results and rejected any decisions by nations which were contrary to their preferences," IRNA quoted him as saying.

On the question about the foreign media reports of post election violence, Ahmadinejad said: "They (the Western media) have been behaving like this for thirty years now. What should they do if they quit behaving like this?"

"On what documents are they making their claims. They only say the results were contrary to their expectations. Well, they should go and correct their own expectations."

Accusing certain western media organisations of presenting the views of thier governments, the president said: "Some western media like their governments say some thing, keep repeating it and then end up in believing it."


"The answer our nation provided to them is quite clear: 40-million-strong voter-turnout with over 25 million having voted in my favour. This means 40 million Iranians are against the interference of western media in their domestic affairs and this nation will repeat this epic at any time of its history."

Ahmadinejad also claimed that freedom in Iran was "almost at a maximum level" and therefore, the opponents also had been able to express their standpoints so openly.

Moussavi Saturday had planned to deliver a speech in front of the interior ministry and later address a press conference, but both were prevented.

There were also unconfirmed reports Sunday that Moussavi is under house arrest. The 67-year former prime minister has not been seen in public since his press conference Friday night at which he declared himself the real winner and accused the government of voter-fraud.
 

Singh

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I am sure Ahmedinejad won it fair and square. The opposition's a bad loser. This infighting has enabled the US to influence world opinion in the opposition's favor.

An 85% turnout only means the rural folk came out in high numbers. Am not surprised.
In 2004, the turnout was 59.6% and Ahmadinejad got 61% of the votes or 17mn votes.
In 2009, the turnout was over 85 and Ahmadinejad again polled 61% of the votes.
In b/w 2004 and 2009 the drug addictions rates are going up, inflation hasn't gone down below 25%, unemployment levels are at an all time high, Iranian reputation worldwide is ruined, subsidies are being curbed etc.

The Iranian people coming out on the streets in massive numbers and taking on the police and basiji(paramilitary) in a nation ruled by an iron fist speaks about the simmering anger of the people.

Hopefully, his foreign policy banter in the second term is better than Obama's.
Ahmadinejad the son of a blacksmith is a mere spokesperson, the main policies are decided by the Ayatollah and his coterie
 

Vinod2070

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Well, as per the reports I have read, this A'jad guy is a fanatic. He believes that the return of the twelfth Imam is around the corner and he needs to take the world to the brink of destruction to facilitate the return!

Seems alarmist but may well be true. He did claim some "divine" intervention during a speech he made at the UN.
 

tharikiran

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I strongly feel the elections in Iran are a farce.

The challenger losing in his hometown is disputable.

Where are the Ahmadinejad supporters. Why are they not on the streets ?

Other than democracy in Iran itself is farce with a cleric sitting on top.

Why is media being clamped down. Even BBC is not able to broadcast it's services with its engineers reporting jamming of their signals from Iran.
 

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Breaking News

Iran's supreme leader orders investigation into allegations the country's presidential election was marred by ballot fraud.
 

Pintu

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Iran's Khatami supports peaceful protest | Reuters

Iran's Khatami supports peaceful protest

Mon Jun 15, 2009 8:11am EDT

TEHRAN, June 15 (Reuters) - Reformist former president Mohammad Khatami criticised Iranian authorities on Monday for denying permission for a rally in Tehran and said the country's disputed election last week had dented public trust.

Khatami said supporters of defeated election candidate Mirhossein Mousavi had a right to peaceful protest, and said he would have joined them if the Interior Ministry had given permission for their planned rally to take place.

"I was determined to take part in today's peaceful demonstration and speak to you and express my practical protest to the unkindness done to the people and the revolution," Khatami said in a faxed statement.

Despite the ban on a rally "you and we will nevertheless continue our movement in this course and would expect that the clear demands of Mr Mousavi, which is the demand of all of us, will be heeded," he said.

Mousavi has appealed the Iran's watchdog Guardian Council to annul the result.

Khatami, who served as president from 1997-2005, remains popular in Iran and publicly backed Mousavi's election bid. Mousavi was soundly defeated by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Friday's election, but has rejected the result as a "dangerous charade".

"What took place in the course of the recent presidential elections produced a blemish in the public trust, and led to ... natural and emotional reactions," Khatami said.

"... Your cheerful and joyous presence through peaceful means, which you have observed, is your right," he said, urging Mousavi supporters to ensure their protests were legal and remained calm.

On Monday supporters of Ahmadinejad on motorbikes and armed with sticks attacked backers of Mousavi as they marched in central Tehran, a Reuters witness said.

The witness said there were scuffles between the groups and that Ahmadinejad supporters used sticks to hit their opponents.

Riot police were also at the scene. [nLF581150] (Reporting by Hashem Kalantari; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Louise Ireland)
 

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Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Iran curbs media after poll result

Iran curbs media after poll result



Tehran accuses the media of exaggerating
post-poll protests in the country [AFP]



Iran has taken steps to control the flow of information from both domestic and international news sources, accusing them of exaggerating reports of anti-government protests in Tehran, the capital.

On Monday, the government ordered the expulsion of a Spanish television crew who were covering the protests against the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, one of the journalists said.

"We are the unwelcome witnesses," Yolanda Alvarez of the RTVE public broadcasting network said.

"They want to get rid of all the foreign media ... the streets last night were full of ant-riot police. The reason there has been no repression (until now) is definitely because they know we were there," she said.

Al Jazeera's Teymoor Nabili, reporting from Tehran, said that it had become increasingly difficult for the media to operate in Iran since the elections results were announced on Saturday.

"Day-by-day our ability to access any information has been slowly whittled away," he said.

"I now stand in a position where I am no longer allowed to take a camera out onto the streets, I am not even sure if I can walk out onto the streets with a mobile phone without getting into trouble.

Newspaper suspended

Also on Monday, a reformist newspaper owned by Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated presidential candidate, was suspended by the authorities.

According to a report in another newspaper, Mousavi's Kalameh Sabz (Green Word) newspaper was suspended following the publication of an unspecified caricature, and a complaint concerning an insult to Ahmadinejad.

The paper's website reported that more than 10 million votes in Friday's election were missing national identification numbers, data which make the vote "untraceable."

However, it did not say where it got the information.

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) said its broadcast was being electronically jammed causing service disruptions for viewers and listeners in Iran, the Middle East and Europe.

It said it had traced the jamming of the satellite signal broadcasting its Farsi-language service to a spot inside Iran.

"It seems to be part of a pattern of behaviour by the Iranian authorities to limit the reporting of the aftermath of the disputed election,'' Peter Horrocks, the director of BBC World Service in London, said.

Internet filtering

Ahmadinejad lashed out at the media shortly after he claimed victory in the election that critics say was marked by widespread voter fraud.

The government increased its internet filtering. Social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter were not working, and mobile phone services were restored on Sunday, after being down on election day.

Geronimo Akerlund, a spokesman for the Swedish network SVT, said its reporter had been asked to "leave Iran as soon as possible", and Al Arabiya, the Dubai-based news network, said its correspondent in Tehran was verbally told by Iranian authorities that its office would be closed for a week.

At a news conference on Sunday, Ahmadinejad sought to allay fears about a media crackdown and said: "Don't worry about freedom in Iran. Newspapers come and go and reappear. Don't worry about it."
Source: Agencies
 

Pintu

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Pre-election Iranian poll showed Ahmadinejad support | World | Reuters

Pre-election Iranian poll showed Ahmadinejad support

Mon Jun 15, 2009 7:38pm IST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A poll of Iran's electorate three weeks before its election showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leading by a 2-to-1 ratio, greater than the announced results of the contested vote, the pollsters said on Monday.

The poll showed Ahmadinejad's disputed victory, which has sparked riots and demonstrations since it was announced, might reflect the will of the people and "is not the product of widespread fraud," pollsters Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty said in a column in The Washington Post.

The election protests have marked the sharpest display of discontent in the Islamic republic in years as supporters of opposition candidate Mirhossein Mousavi alleged fraud in Friday's election.

"While Western news reports from Tehran in the days leading up to the voting portrayed an Iranian public enthusiastic about Ahmadinejad's principal opponent ... our scientific sampling from across all 30 of Iran's provinces showed Ahmadinejad well ahead," the pollsters said.

Thirty-four percent of those polled said they would vote for Ahmadinejad while 14 percent preferred Mousavi and 27 percent were undecided.

The poll was conducted by their nonprofit organizations -- Terror Free Tomorrow: The Center for Public Opinion and the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation -- from May 11 to 20 and funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

It was the third in a series of polls over the past two years and consisted of 1,001 telephone interviews in Farsi from a neighboring country, with a 3.1 percent margin of error.

"The breadth of Ahmadinejad's support was apparent in our pre-election survey," the pollsters said, rejecting arguments the poll might have reflected a fearful reluctance to give honest answers.

The poll also found nearly four in five Iranians wanted to change the system to give them the right to elect Iran's supreme leader, not currently subject to popular vote, they said. Iranians chose free elections and a free press as their most important priorities.

"These were hardly 'politically correct' responses to voice publicly in a largely authoritarian society," the pollsters said.

"The fact may simply be that the re-election of President Ahmadinejad is what the Iranian people wanted."
 

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Rival supporters clash in central Tehran | International | Reuters

Rival supporters clash in central Tehran

Mon Jun 15, 2009 8:05am EDT

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on motorbikes and armed with sticks attacked backers of defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi as they marched in central Tehran Monday, a Reuters witness said.

The witness said there were scuffles between the rival groups and that Ahmadinejad supporters used sticks to hit their opponents, who accuse the authorities of rigging Friday's presidential election in the incumbent's favor.

Shouting Allah Akbar (God is great), thousands of Mousavi supporters marched toward Tehran's Revolution Square, where Mousavi was expected to address them and call for calm after two days of violent unrest in the capital sparked by the vote.

Mousavi supporters carried pictures of him and chanted slogans. They also had banners saying they did not need permission for such rallies, in reference to an Interior Ministry announcement the gathering was illegal.

Riot police were also at the scene.

(Reporting Parisa Hafezi; writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Matthew Jones)
 

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