Iranian Election Goes to a Run-Off

Since the Ayatollah Khomeini dragged Iran back into the 9th century of the Common Era, the definition of an Iranian moderate is one who has stopped to reload. So, it was rather amusing to see the western media pretend that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was a reformer in his bid for Iran's presidency. The man served in the same role for eight years from 1989 to 1997, not exactly groovy times in Iran. The reporters' short attention span is not restricted to American elections.

The mullahs who have been misruling Iran since 1979 when they kicked out the Shah (who dared to try to take their property away and give it to the people) allowed anyone who wanted to hand in their nomination papers to do so – providing they were Muslim. Then, the Guardian Council, which is the top body of religious oppression, threw out over 1,000 names leaving but six. Since not one of them had much respect from the people, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (the dictator of Iran, despite what the façade of government might have one believe) told the Guardians that they needed a pair of reformers to make things look right. Why a pair? So they could split the pro-reform vote – whatever “reform” might mean.

The resulting 8-man race turned into a 7-candidate field when one of the hardliners (here defined as an Iranian who isn’t going to reload because he has a second gun on him) dropped out when it looked like the reform pair might do well enough to take part in a run-off. He needn’t have worried, since the electoral commission made sure no reformer placed first or second. One of the reformers, Mehdi Karroubi, former speaker of the Majlis (Farsi for “parliament”) finished third and he said, “There has been bizarre interference. Money has changed hands.” Apparently, the electoral officials of Florida vacation in Iran.

Since no candidate got 50%+1 of the vote, there will be a run-off this Friday between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the knuckle-dragging mayor of Tehran with ties to the Revolutionary Guards (pronounced “Gestapo” or a variation on it), and “reformer” Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was president of Iran from 1989 to 1997. Big hint for the American media, if a man has already run his country for eight years, he can’t be a reformer. A cynical manipulator of the national mood for change, perhaps, but not a reformer. For examnple, in 1988 while president, he told French TV, "the number of political prisoners executed in the past few months was less than 1,000."

So, the mullahs have arranged an election in which the people can choose from a secret policeman turned mayor or an ex-president who helped keep the people quiet for eight years using the secret police – the Chinese should try this the next time they want to hand pick a leader for Hong Kong. Best of all, it doesn’t matter who the president is – half the country is under 25, there isn’t any work for the young, and the mullahs are sitting on a powder keg holding a burning match. Just the sort of place that shouldn’t have the Bomb, which of course, it will continue to pursue anyway regardless of who wins the election.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home