Revolution 2009 – No. 2 in a Series

"There's an awful lot of questions about how this election was run," Vice President Biden said this morning on Meet the Press. "But we'll see, we're just waiting to see, we don't have a enough facts to make a firm judgement."

Some facts to add to this morning's dispatch: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/revolution-2009.html

Another candidate, cleric Mehdi Karroubi, joined Mir-Hossein Moussavi to protest the results, saying "that the elections should not be allowed and the results have no legitimacy or social standing. Therefore, I do not consider Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of the republic.”

Iran's State-Run TV reports that Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has — again — approved its result. "The wise and vigilant Iranian people showed they are still committed to the path of the architect of the Islamic Revolution the late Imam Khomeini," he said.

The official results again:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won with 24.5 million of the votes — 62.63 percent.
Mir-Hossein Moussavi came in second with 13.2 million votes
Mohsen Rezaei with 678,240 votes
Mehdi Karroubi with 333,635 votes.

The NIAC translates a page from today's Iran Daily looking at how many votes candidates won in their hometowns.

In Ahmadinejad's hometown, Aradan, Semnan, Ahmadinejad won 9,000 out of 10,000 votes.
In Mir-Hossein Mousavi''s homwtown of Shabestar, East Azerbaijan, Ahmadinejad received 5,000 out of 7,000 votes.
In Mehdi Karroubi's hometown of Aligordaz, Lurist, Ahmadinejad received  39,690 votes, Karroubi 14,512.
In Mohsen Rezai's home village of Lali, in Khuzestan, Ahmadinejad received 830 votes out of 900.

Ahmadinejad held a rally, the BBC reports, where he said the results of the election were "very accurate."

Ahmadinejad said the Western media's "standpoint is if the candidate they propagated does not win, then there has definitely been cheating. In the West they even seek support from homosexuals to get a few more votes. In Iran however our democracy is based on ethics."

"Some people want democracy only for their own sake," he said. "Some want elections, freedom, a sound election. They recognise it only as long as the result favours them."

Tehranbureau reports that Mousavi has called for a "PEACEFUL MARCH & MASS DEMONSTRATION in 20 cities across Iran on Monday, June 15" at 5 pm "to denounce the election results as fraud. He has applied for a license to protect the safety of protestors….Mousavi has also called for a NATIONAL STRIKE on Tuesday, June 16…and asked all those who contest the results to close their shops, businesses, etc. and for employees to not go to work that day."

An Iranian reporter tells Radio Free Europe that "it wasn’t an election; it was a coup d’etat. [They] stole 24 million votes of the nation and took them away for themselves. If there were really a winner, they would have to celebrate, but instead they beat people. They performed a coup, but they don’t call it a coup."

In Tehran, Roger Cohen reports of a conversation with a man from the Interior Ministry

"He was from the Interior Ministry. He showed his ID card. He said he’d worked there 30 years. He said he hadn’t been allowed in; nor had most other employees. He said the votes never got counted. He said numbers just got affixed to each candidate. He said he’d demanded of the police why'“victory' required such oppression. He said he’d fought in the 1980-88 Iraq war, his brother was a martyr, and now his youth seemed wasted and the nation’s sacrifice in vain."

An interview with a spokesman for Mousavi, Mohsen Makhbalbaf, says that "in the early hours after voting had ended, the Interior Ministry had called Mr. Mousavi’s campaign headquarters to inform them that Mr. Mousavi would be the winner and, therefore, Mr. Mousavi must prepare a victory statement. Mr. Mousavi was, however, asked by the Ministry not to boast too much, in order not to upset Mr. Ahmadinejad’s supporters. Many of the president’s supporters are among the ranks of the Basij militia, and thus armed.

"According to Mr. Makhbalbaf, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was also informed of the developments. He also recommended a 'good management' of the victory statement, meaning not boasting greatly about the victory, because that would be in Iran’s national interests and stability.

"At the same time, the reformist newspapers were also informed that they can prepare their Saturday edition to declare Mr. Mousavi the winner, but were not allowed to use the word pirouzi (victory) in their articles, in order not to upset Mr. Ahmadinejad’s supporters. One reformist newspaper prepared its front page with the title, “People took back the flag of their country [from Mr. Ahmadinejad].”

"But, just a few hours later, a center that had been set up by Mr. Mousavi in Gheytarieh (in northern Tehran) for monitoring the election and vote counting, was attacked by armed security agents. They ransacked the center, destroyed computers, and attacked the staff. Supporters of Mr. Mousavi intervened and arrested 8 security agents. The police was called to take them to prison, but the police released the attackers."

In addition to the above sites, some good sources for news and updates include Flickr's Iran feed, bloggers including Andrew Sullivan, Michael Totten, Nico Pitney, and Gateway Pundit.

The BBC also has a good run down of ways that the revolution is being Twitterized, Youtubed, blogged and the like.

God is great.

- jpt