Moon of Alabama

There is a full effort of the “western” media and some expatriate Iranian organizations to de-legitimize the Iranian election despite the absence of any real evidence of voting fraud. These events show all characteristics of an engineered “color evolution”. 

As said before I find the reelection of Ahmadinejad quite plausible. He has done a lot for the poor and the elections were for a decent part class based. As Robert Fisk relates from someone not-regime-friendly in Tehran:

But I must repeat what he said. “The election figures are correct, Robert. Whatever you saw in Tehran, in the cities and in thousands of towns outside, they voted overwhelmingly for Ahmadinejad. Tabriz voted 80 per cent for Ahmadinejad. It was he who opened university courses there for the Azeri people to learn and win degrees in Azeri. In Mashad, the second city of Iran, there was a huge majority for Ahmadinejad after the imam of the great mosque attacked Rafsanjani of the Expediency Council who had started to ally himself with Mousavi. They knew what that meant: they had to vote for Ahmadinejad.”

My guest and I drank dookh, the cool Iranian drinking yoghurt so popular here. The streets of Tehran were a thousand miles away. “You know why so many poorer women voted for Ahmadinejad? There are three million of them who make carpets in their homes. They had no insurance. When Ahmadinejad realised this, he immediately brought in a law to give them full insurance. Ahmadinejad’s supporters were very shrewd. They got the people out in huge numbers to vote – and then presented this into their vote for Ahmadinejad.”

The myth in the “western” media is that Ahmadinejad is a “right-wing hardliner”. While he asserts nationalism and sovereignty as any president should do, in interior politics and economics, dominant in elections everywhere, his position is more to the left of the typical “western” right-left scale.

The argument favored by Juan Cole and others that high inflation and high unemployment numbers should have favored Mousavi and the ‘reformers’ backed by Iran’s richest man Rafsanjani. But those numbers, as asserted in the “west”, are not what they are said to be.

Unfortunately the myth that is currently created, will likely be used to favor the agenda of the war mongers. We will all be in trouble if their argument wins. This whole issue will do wonders for oil speculators and thereby snuff up any “green shots”.

• Blog Refernce:

For more about Iranian election and for More Info visit: http://djavad.wordpress.com/

From the Editor

We can’t describe what is happening in Iran as a protest against the regime. It is just a real democracy in a region lacks such these practicing and stands surprised about the flexibility of the Iran way of ruling. Some of western commenter are not believing what they see. They are trying to go back to the stereotype and the brain washing which the western media is doing and try to compare between what they are seeing on the ground and what they have heard from their media. It is a totally different image.  We , in this site, published yesterday an opinion of an American commenter describing Iran as one of the most development nation in the Middle East and try to say the the brainwash which the western Media is doing is similar to that it did to the USSR during the Cold War.

He tried to find a similarities between Iran and USSR from the ideological strong base for both regimes , however , he admits that as a nation he describes Iran as a developed state.

the protest in the streets of Tehran is a normal symptoms of democracy . It is an opposition when it feels that its candidate has failed . all democracies have the same symptoms with differences in severity. ere in the middle East our symptoms are acute . We are still beginners in the Democracy as a way of  living.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – An anti-Syrian coalition defeated Hezbollah in Lebanon’s parliamentary election on Sunday in a blow to Syria and Iran and a boost to the United States.

“Congratulations to Lebanon, congratulations to democracy, congratulations to freedom,” the coalition’s leader Saad al-Hariri said in a victory speech at his mansion in Beirut.

The outcome was also welcome news for Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which back Hariri’s “March 14″ alliance – the date of a 2005 rally against Syria’s military presence in Lebanon.

“We have lost the election,” conceded a senior politician close to the bloc of Shi’ite groups Hezbollah and Amal and Christian ally Michel Aoun.

“We accept the result as the will of the people.”

The vote will be viewed as a stinging setback to Aoun, who held the biggest bloc of Christian MPs in the outgoing assembly and had hoped to seal his claim to speak for the Christians.

A source in Hariri’s campaign predicted a decisive victory, with his bloc taking at least 70 of the assembly’s 128 seats.

Perhaps 100 of the seats were virtually decided in advance, thanks to sectarian voting patterns and political deals, with Sunni and Shi’ite communities voting solidly on opposing sides.

The real electoral battle centered on Christian areas, where Aoun was up against former President Amin Gemayel’s Phalange Party, Samir Geagea’s Lebanese Forces and independents.

Lebanon’s rival camps are at odds over Hezbollah’s guerrilla force, which outguns the Lebanese army, and ties with Syria, which dominated Lebanon for three decades until 2005.

The likeliest outcome of the poll is another “national unity” government, analysts say.

SINIORA WINS SEAT

According to unofficial results, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who has enjoyed Western and Arab support, won a parliamentary seat in the mainly Sunni southern city of Sidon.

Siniora, 66, has headed the cabinet since the Hariri-led coalition won the 2005 parliamentary election. He led the government through 18 months of political conflict with Hezbollah and its allies, but is not expected to keep his post.

Voting was relatively trouble-free across Lebanon, although there were many reports of vote-buying before the poll, with some Lebanese expatriates being offered free air tickets home.

The United States, which lists Hezbollah as a terrorist group, has linked future aid to Lebanon to the shape and policies of the next government. Hezbollah, which says it must keep its arms to deter Israel, is part of the outgoing cabinet.

The anti-Syrian coalition has enjoyed firm backing from many Western countries since the 2005 assassination of Hariri’s father Rafik al-Hariri.

The coalition took power in an election following Hariri’s killing, but struggled to govern in the face of a sometimes violent conflict with Hezbollah and its allies.

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said any new government had to be based on partnership, not on one side monopolizing power.

“Whatever the results of the election, we cannot change the standing delicate balances or repeat the experiences of the past which led to catastrophes on Lebanon,” he told Reuters.

“Whoever wants political stability, the preservation of national unity and the resurrection of Lebanon will find no choice but to accept the principle of consensus.”

Hezbollah and its allies insisted on being given veto power in a unity cabinet — a demand that caused an 18-month political deadlock until it was granted under a Qatari-brokered deal that followed street fighting in Beirut in May 2008.

Leading anti-Syrian politician Walid Jumblatt said he opposed the idea of veto power for the opposition.

Asked if they should be in the government, he told Reuters: “Yes, but I cannot decide on my own. I am part of a coalition and it should be a unanimous decision.”

Tensions in Lebanon have mostly been kept in check since the Qatari-mediated accord dragged the country back from the brink of civil war. A thaw in relations between Saudi Arabia and Syria has also helped maintain stability in recent months.

Security was tight, with 50,000 troops and police deployed across Lebanon, especially in the most contested districts.

Security sources said one person was wounded by gunfire in the northern city of Tripoli and there were brawls between rival supporters elsewhere, but no reports of serious fighting.

Baroud said preliminary figures showed a turnout of more than 54 percent, a high figure for Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands of the 3.26 million eligible voters live abroad.