2009 Iranian presidential election

Iranian presidential election, 2009

12 June 2009

Nominee Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mir-Hossein Mousavi Party ABII Independent Reformist Popular vote 24,527,516 13,216,411 Percentage 62.63% 33.75%   Nominee Mohsen Rezaee Mehdi Karroubi Party Ind. Conservative National Confidence Popular vote 678,240 333,635 Percentage 1.73% 0.85%

President before election Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Alliance_of_Builders_of_Islamic_Iran Elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Alliance_of_Builders_of_Islamic_Iran

The 2009 Iranian presidential election was held on 12 June 2009 in Iran, the tenth presidential election to be held in the country. The President of Iran is the highest official elected by direct popular vote, but does not control foreign policy or the armed forces. Candidates have to be vetted by the Guardian Council, a twelve member body consisting of six clerics (selected by Iran's Supreme Leader), and six lawyers (proposed by the head of Iran's judicial system and voted in by the Parliament).

With two-thirds of the votes counted, the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the election with 66% of the votes cast, and that Mir-Hossein Mousavi had received 33% of the votes cast. The European Union and several western countries expressed concern over alleged irregularities during the vote, and some analysts and journalists from United States and United Kingdom based media voiced doubts about the authenticity of the results.

Mousavi issued a statement saying, "I'm warning that I won't surrender to this charade," and he urged his backers to fight the decision as well as to avoid committing acts of violence. Protests, in favour of Mousavi and against the alleged fraud, broke out in Tehran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, labeling his victory as a "divine assessment". Mousavi lodged an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June. On 15 June, Khamenei announced there would be an investigation into vote-rigging claims, which would take seven to ten days.

Background

Further information: [[:President of Iran]] and [[:Politics of Iran]]

Ahmadinejad became President of Iran after the 2005 election. The losing candidates at that time claimed irregularities at the polls, but the charges were not investigated. A formal protest to the Guardian Council was made and the group dismissed it without comment. His victory had surprised most observers of the campaign. At that time, the reformist camp had mostly either boycotted elections entirely or held back out of disillusionment with past lack of progress. The voting for the 2009 election was scheduled for 13 June 2009 and ended up being extended until midnight that day because the turnout was unexpectedly high. Voting ended up proceeding four hours longer than originally scheduled.

The President is elected by direct vote, however candidates for the presidency must be approved by the 12-member Council of Guardians. Candidates need to win a majority (more than half) to become President. Iran has a two-round system: if none of the candidates wins the majority in the first round, the top two candidates will go to a run-off. The first round was held on 12 June 2009, and the run-off, if necessary, will be held one week later, on 19 June 2009. All Iranian citizens of age 16 and up are eligible to vote. Both the Iranian Center for Statistics and the Iranian Ministry of the Interior have stated that there are around 46.2 million eligible voters.

Candidates

On 20 May 2009, the Guardian Council officially announced a list of approved candidates, while rejecting a number of registered nominees.

Approved candidates

Conservatives

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran
• Mohsen Rezaee, former Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard

Reformists

• Mehdi Karroubi, former Speaker of the Majlis
• Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the last Prime Minister of Iran (Campaign article)

Rejected candidates

Conservatives

• Rafat Bayat, female Majlis representative from Zanjan

Independents

• Akbar Alami, former Majlis representative from Tabriz
• Ghasem Sholeh-Saadi, former Majlis representative

Withdrawn candidates

• Mohammad Khatami, former President of Iran, has endorsed Mousavi. (See article on Khatami presidential campaign for details.)

Potential candidates

The following people were said to be possible candidates in the election, but did not register within the five days allowed for registration. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former President and chairman of the Assembly of Experts, would have been over 75 years old on the election day and therefore ineligible to run by election law.

Conservatives who declined to run

• Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Mayor of Tehran
• Gholamali Haddad-Adel, former Speaker of the Majlis
• Mohammad Jahromi, Iranian Minister of Labor and Social Affairs
• Ali Larijani, speaker of the Majlis
• Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri, former Speaker of the Majlis
• Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, former Minister of the Interior
• Ali Akbar Velayati, Minister of Foreign Affairs 1981–97

Reformists who declined to run

• Mohammad Reza Aref, former First Vice President
• Masoumeh Ebtekar
• Mohammad Ali Najafi, member of the Tehran City Council and former Minister of Education
• Abdollah Nouri, former Minister of Interior, former Speaker of Tehran City Council
• Hassan Rowhani, former Secretary of National Security Council

Campaign

Background

Further information: [[:Mir-Hossein Mousavi presidential campaign, 2009]] and [[:Major events in the Iranian reform movement]]

Mir-Hossein Mousavi rally in Tehran on 9 June 2009.

The incumbent was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian reform movement attempted to unite behind a single candidate; former President Mohammad Khatami had been the leading opponent to Ahmadinejad in some opinion polls until he withdrew and endorsed former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Former Speaker of the Majlis Mehdi Karroubi, another Reformist, was also running, as was former Commander of Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Mohsen Rezaee, a Conservative with a reputation of political pragmatism. The election marked a return to the public spotlight for Mousavi, who had not received much attention since he served as Prime Minister in the 1980s. Reformist opinions galvanized around him as the election grew nearer. He became the symbol for a groundswell of youthful democratic sentiment, despite his personal background and his political views.

The Telegraph has described the campaign as "unusually open by Iranian standards, but also highly acrimonious." It was marked by heated rhetoric between the incumbent and his challengers. Mousavi and two other candidates said Ahmadinejad had lied about the state of the economy, which was suffering from high inflation and a fall in oil revenues from last year's record levels. Ahmadinejad responded by comparing his opponents to Adolf Hitler, adding that they could be jailed for their comments. "No one has the right to insult the president, and they did it. And this is a crime. The person who insulted the president should be punished, and the punishment is jail... Such insults and accusations against the government are a return to Hitler's methods, to repeat lies and accusations... until everyone believes those lies," Ahmadinejad said.

Debates about the economy played the biggest role in the campaign, with the global economic recession looming in people's minds. About one in five Iranians live under the poverty line, inflation is at about 25 percent, and unemployment is at over 12.5 percent. Mousavi advocated further privatization of the economy towards a free market with a tight monetary policy in comparison to Ahmadinejad's pro-interventionist fiscal policy, with Ahmadinejad making measures to fight poverty a key principle in his campaign. Mousavi drew his electoral base from the middle and upper classes while Ahmadinejad drew support from the urban poor and rural residents. Civil servants, police officers, pensioners, and others dependent on the government also contributed to Ahmadinejad's base. He made financial support from the business class against him into a theme of attack. BBC News has described his campaign as "one that foresees the death of capitalism".

Mousavi also criticized Ahmadinejad for diplomatically isolating Iran by denying the Holocaust and making anti-Western speeches. He opposed the government's current strict enforcement of Islamic dress and social behavior as well, calling for an end to the regime's 'Vice Police'. He advocated letting private individuals and groups own Iranian media. Both candidates strongly supported further development of the Iranian nuclear program. However, Mousavi advocated a less combative and tense tone with other nations about the program. He also floated the idea of an international consortium overseeing uranium enrichment in Iran. BBC News has stated about Mousavi that "[i]n foreign affairs, he seems to be offering little change on major issues". Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Mohamad Bazzi has stated that "[i]f Mousavi wins, it could create a new opening for dialogue with the United States. Ahmadinejad's continued presence would be a major obstacle". Robert Fisk has also remarked that a Mousavi victory would mean closer ties to the U.S.

The campaign was the most expensive in the Islamic republic's history, with the two main candidates spending more than tens of millions of dollars in bid to convince voters to support them. Funds were spent on, among other things, a mass distribution of computerized propaganda, such as CDs and DVDs. Another interesting phenomenon which took place during the campaign was a dramatic rise in the number of text messages sent to Iranian cell phone subscribers, from 60 million messages a day to some 110 million. Mousavi adopted the traditional Islamic color, green, as a campaign symbol. Young male supporters wore green ribbons tied around their wrists and young female supporters wore green headscarves. Activists used the term 'Change' as his main slogan, chanting phrases such as "Green change for Iran", "Together for change", and "Vote for change".

Debates

Between 2 June and 8 June 2009 Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting broadcast nightly debates on TV channel IRIB 3 between two candidates at a time, with each candidate facing the others once. This was the first time Iran had held televised debates between candidates. Each debate lasted for around one and a half hours. During the debate on 3 June between President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and reformist rival, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad made accusations regarding former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and the Iranian Revolution. Rafsanjani responded to these charges on 9 June in an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei requesting that he step in to rebuke Ahmadinejad for his comments at the debate.

Opinion polls

The opinion polls in Iran have been considered unreliable. A number of polls conducted between relatively small voting groups, like university students and workers, have been reported as election propaganda. More general polls reported in the media do not state the polling organization nor the basic facts about the methodology. The results show a high variance and depend heavily on who is reporting the poll. In 2002, the polling organization Ayandeh and another polling organization was closed and its directors were arrested. The director of Ayandeh, Abbas Abdi, spent several years in prison.

Mousavi's and Karroubi's campaign posters in Tehran claimed that a high turnout would reduce Ahmadinejad's chance of winning the election. Karroubi's campaign manager, Gholamhossein Karbaschi, claimed that the chance of Ahmadinejad losing the election would be over 65 percent if over 32 million people voted, but less than 35 percent if less than 27 million people voted.

Immediately before the end of the election, the former Iranian president, Khatami, predicted that Mousavi would win.

An independent poll, conducted by Terror Free Tomorrow: The Center for Public Opinion, a nonprofit institute that researches attitudes toward extremism, found that Ahmadinejad was leading by a margin of 2 to 1. 34% said they'd vote for Ahmadinejad, 14% favored Mousavi, and 27% were undecided. The poll was taken from May 11 to May 20. The poll was carried out by a company whose work for ABC News and the BBC in the Middle East has received an Emmy award. Polling itself was funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Writing in the Washington Post, pollsters Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty have used this to suggest that Ahmadinejad's apparent victory might reflect the will of the Iranian people. The poll was quoted by Reuters, Khaleej Timesand Jim Muir of BBC News. However, the Irish Times, while quoting the poll, also pointed out that it was taken three weeks before the election.

Polling organisation	Date	Poll details	Candidate
			Mahmoud Ahmadinejad	Mehdi Karroubi	Mir-Hossein Mousavi	Mohsen Rezaee
ISPA (Iranian Students Polling Association)	10 June 2009	National	47	Unknown	31	Unknown
reported by Rooz Online	before 9 June 2009	Nationwide; 7900 people	23%	Unknown	54%–57%	Unknown
Rahbord e Danesh, reported by Tabnak	before 9 June 2009	1743 people	25.5%	6.1%	37.6%	30.8%
reported by Alef	before 8 June 2009	Major cities	61.7	Unknown	28	Unknown
reported by Alef	before 8 June 2009	Tehran	42	Unknown	46	Unknown
IRIB, reported by Alef	before 7 June 2009	Tehran	47.5	Unknown	39.9	Unknown
IRIB, reported by Alef	before 7 June 2009	more than 16,000 people, 30 major cities in each Province	62.7	Unknown	25.7	Unknown
reported by Baznevis	before 6 June 2009	16,945 people	22.5%	7.5%	64%	4%
reported by ILNA	before 5 June 2009	Nationwide 300,000 people	24.61%	10.72%	54.53%	10.14%
Rahbord e Danesh, reported by Tabnak	before 3 June 2009	1743 people	29.5%	7.5%	37.5%	25.2%
Rayemelat	before 3 June 2009	Tehran	33%	10%	50%	6%
reported by Rajanews/Press TV	before 1 June 2009	major cities	53%	Unknown	36%	Unknown
Baznevis, reported by Tabnak	before 31 May 2009	Nationwide; 77,058 people	33%	3%	36%	27%
Aftab News, reported by Tabnak	before 31 May 2009	Nationwide; 18,391 people; (Who will you not vote for?)	(62%)	(7%)	(28%)	(4%)
Rahbord Danesh, reported by Tabnak	31 May 2009	Nationwide	32%	6%	36%	27%
ISPA (Iranian Students Polling Association)	29 May 2009	National, 11285 people	54.8	4.7	21.3	2.6
reported by Ghalamnews	before 27 May 2009	1650 people	35%	Unknown	54%	Unknown
reported by Rayemelat	before 27 May 2009	Tehran only	36%	9%	48%	5%
Young Journalists Club (IRIB affiliated)	before 30 May 2009	Nationwide; 30,000 people	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
reported by Ayandeh News	before 26 May 2009	10 major cities	34%	Unknown	38%	Unknown
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting	before 26 May 2009	Tehran only	43%	Unknown	47%	Unknown
New America Foundation(Terror Free Tomorrow)	before 20 May 2009	Nationwide; 1001 people, error margin +/-3.1% (27% undecided); (59% satisfied, 23% unsatisfied)	34%	2%	14%	1%
reported by Rayemelat	14 May 2009	Tehran only	42%	6%	44%	4%
Etemad-e-Melli	before 13 May 2009	Nationwide	1st	2nd	3rd	4th
Rahbord Danesh, reported by Tabnak	5 May 2009	Nationwide	38%	12%	32%	15%
reported by Rajanews/Press TV	3 May 2009–4 May 2009	62 cities	59%	Unknown	22%	Unknown
Government	before 3 May 2009	Unknown	54% (45% in Tehran)	Unknown	22% (29% in Tehran)	Unknown
Rahbord Danesh, reported by Tabnak	4 April 2009	Nationwide	40%	8%	24%	1%
Worker's Statistical Institute	late March 2009	Nationwide survey of workers	36%	8%	52%	Unknown
Rahbord Danesh, reported by Tabnak	5 March 2009	Nationwide	44%	7%	13%	0%

Irregularities

Pre-election violence

progress of formal announcing of presidential election counting results

Two screenshots from Iranian state TV. During the official announcement of the election results, the counted votes of Mohsen Rezaee drop over time. At 09:47 (Top Picture) Rezaee had 633,048 votes. However, at 13:53 (the lower picture) his counted votes drop to 587,913

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On 1 June, a campaign office of Ahmadinejad's primary opponent, Mir Hossein Moussavi, was torched. The office was located in the city of Qum, in northwest Iran. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. At the same time, it was reported that an assassination had been attempted against former president Mohammad Khatami by means of a bomb placed on an aircraft he was to board.

Blocking of communications

Mobile phone communications were interrupted in Tehran on election day and the BBC has stated that “heavy electronic jamming" was being used to halt their broadcasts. On 23 May 2009, the Iranian government temporarily blocked access to Facebook across the country. Gulfnews.com reported that this move was a response to the use of Facebook by candidates running against the incumbent Ahmadinejad. PC World reported that Mousavi's Facebook page had more than 6,600 supporters. Access was restored by 26 May 2009.

Alleged vote rigging or coup attempt

In an interview taken when only the votes from the villages and small cities of the country had been announced, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, official speaker for the Mir-Hossein Mousavi campaign, said he was told that there was to be a coup on Saturday. The New York Times quoted an employee of the Interior Ministry saying that "the government had been preparing its fraud for weeks, purging anyone of doubtful loyalty and importing pliable staff members from around the country." The New Yorker stated that "dissident employees of the Interior Ministry... have reportedly issued an open letter" saying that the election was stolen.

The Guardian has also mentioned "reports of a leaked interior ministry figures allegedly suggesting Mousavi had won".

Results

The election had seen huge candidate rallies in Iranian cities, and turnout was very high with over 80 percent of the electorate reportedly voting. If no candidate had received a majority of support, a run-off election would have been held on 19 June 2009. At the closing of election polls, both leading candidates, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, claimed victory, with both candidates telling the press that their sources have them at 58–60% of the total vote. Early reports had claimed a turnout of 32 million votes cast. Mousavi warned the Iranian people of possible vote fraud.

According to Reuters, several noted political analysts contested the results immediately. Mousavi announced on his website that he in fact was the person that received the majority of the voting and that his name was replaced by Ahmadinejad's. He urged his supporters to reject what he saw as "blatant violations" of democracy and its replacement by "the rule of authoritarianism and tyranny." He declared on Friday:

"The results announced for the 10th presidential elections are astonishing. People who stood in long lines and knew well who they voted for were utterly surprised by the magicians working at the television and radio broadcasting".

Analysis

According to modern Middle Eastern and South Asian historian Juan Cole, there were several anomalies in the election results. It was reported that Ahmadinejad won the city of Tabriz with 57%, which is the capital of Moussavi's home province, Azerbaijan. Ahmadinejad also won Tehran by over 50%, even though his popularity in larger cities is considered to be low. Meanwhile Karroubi, who received less than one percent of the votes, got 17 percent in the first round of the 2005 presidential elections. Also Karroubi lost his own province of birth, even though Iranian voting traditionally follows ethnic lines to a large degree.

Blogger and statistician Nate Silver on June 13 wrote that a statistical analysis of the official results was ultimately inconclusive as far as determining that there was election fraud. On June 15, Silver posted regional results that he had received from a student of Iranian Studies at the University of St Andrews, who had translated them from the original Farsi. He compared Ahmadinejad's 2009 results with the conservative candidates' results in the first round of the 2005 election (Ahmadinejad, Larijani and Ghalibaf), and found the results from certain provinces to be suspicious. While conservative candidates in Lorestān received only 20% in 2005, Ahmadinejad reportedly got 71% in 2009. In Tehran, on the other hand, the conservative vote was relatively speaking lower than in the previous election. Silver further compared the votes for Ahmadinejad only, and found the correlation between 2005 and 2009 to be "fairly weak". He did, however, warn against differences between the two elections and changes over time, and declined to make a judgement on the validity of the official result.

Abbas Barzegar, reporting for The Guardian, has described the Western reaction to the election results as evidence of wishful thinking. Western journalists, Barzegar argues, have been reporting primarily from the wealthier areas of the greater cities, ignoring the wide support Ahmadinejad enjoys in poor and rural communities. Juan Cole, on the other hand, rejects this interpretation. According to Cole, this analysis ignored the social development that has taken place in Iran over the last decade, the large pro-reform election victories in 1997 and 2001 (prior to the reformist voter boycott of 2005), and the fact that the concern of the electorate today is "about culture wars, not class."

BBC Iranian affairs analyst Sadeq Saba points at some abnormalities. For instance, over announcing the results by the government the percentages going to each candidate changed very little. This suggests that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did equally well in rural and urban areas. These contradict the political status in Iran and the fact that Mr Ahmadinejad is very popular in rural areas and unpopular in the big cities. In addition, ethnic minorities commonly vote for candidates perceived as 'anti-establishment,' and candidates usually win their own home provinces. These voting patterns were not apparent in this election.

Provincial Results

On June 15 Iranian State owned PressTV reported the provincial results. The report also includes a list of cites and vote counts where Mir-Hossein Mousavi won over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It does not include totals of any other cities or the totals of the other two candidates. The report did not include any results for Lorestan Province (the place where Mehdi Karoubi was born and where he had strong support in the previous elections in 2005).

Province	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad	Mehdi Karroubi	Mir-Hossein Mousavi	Mohsen Rezaee	Spoiled ballots	Total Votes
Ardabil	325,911	2,319	302,825	6,578	4,372	642,005
Azarbaijan, East	1,131,111	7,246	837,858	16,920	17,205	2,010,340
Azarbaijan, West	623,946	21,609	656,508	12,199	20,094	1,334,356
Bushehr	299,357	3,563	177,268	7,607	6,193	493,989
Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari	359,578	22,689	106,099	4,127	2,953	495,446
Fars	1,758,026	16,277	706,764	23,871	18,359	2,523,300
Gilan	998,573	7,183	453,806	12,022	11,674	1,483,258
Golestan	515,211	10,097	325,806	5,987	14,266	869,453
Hamadan	765,723	12,032	218,481	13,117	9,816	1,019,169
Hormozgan	482,990	5,126	241,988	7,237	5,683	843,024
Ilam	199,654	7,471	96,826	5,221	3,495	312,667
Isfahan	1,799,255	14,579	746,697	51,788	25,162	2,637,482
Kerman	1,160,446	4,977	318,250	12,016	10,125	1,505,814
Kermanshah	573,568	10,798	374,188	11,258	13,610	983,422
Khorasan, North	341,104	2,478	113,218	4,129	3,072	464,001
Khorasan, Razavi	2,214,801	13,561	884,570	44,809	24,240	3,181,990
Khorasan, South	285,983	928	90,363	3,962	1,920	383,157
Khuzestan	1,303,129	15,934	552,636	139,124	28,022	2,038,845
Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad	253,962	4,274	98,937	8,542	2,311	368,707
Kurdistan	315,689	13,862	261,772	7,140	12,293	610,757
Lorestan	No Results Reported
Markazi	572,988	4,675	190,349	10,057	7,889	785,961
Mazandaran	1,289,257	10,050	585,373	19,587	15,571	1,919,838
Qazvin	498,061	2,690	177,542	7,978	6,084	692,355
Qom	422,457	2,314	148,467	16,297	9,505	599,040
Semnan	295,177	2,147	77,754	4,440	3,790	383,308
Sistan and Baluchistan	450,269	12,504	507,946	6,616	5,585	982,920
Tehran	3,819,945	67,334	3,371,523	147,487	115,701	7,521,540
Yazd	337,178	2,565	255,799	8,406	5,908	609,856
Zanjan	444,480	2,223	126,561	7,276	5,181	585,721
Source: Interior Ministry reported by PressTV

Aftermath

Main article: 2009 Iranian election protests

Protests

Protests against the election results on the streets of Tehran.

Clashes broke out between police and groups protesting the election results from early morning on Saturday onward. Initially, the protests were largely peaceful. However, as time passed, they became increasingly violent. Some protesters began to get violent after the results of the election were announced. Angry crowds in Tehran broke into shops, tore down signs, and smashed windows. Civil unrest took place as protesters set fire to tires outside the Interior Ministry building and others formed a human chain of around 300 people to close off a major Tehran street.

File:Iranian presidential election, 2009, protests (1).jpg

Protests against the election results on the streets of Tehran.

The demonstrations grew bigger and more heated than the 1999 student protests. Al Jazeera English has described the situation as the "biggest unrest since the 1979 revolution." It also reported that protests seemed spontaneous without any formal organization. Two hundred people protested outside Iran's embassy in London on 13 June. Ynet has stated that "tens of thousands" protested on 13 June. Demonstrators are chanting phrases such as "Down with the dictator", "Death to the dictator", and "Give us our votes back". Mousavi has urged for calm and asked that his supporters refrain from acts of violence.

Ynet reported on 14 June that two people had died in the rioting so far. That day, protests had been organized in front of the Iranian embassies in Turkey, Dubai, Paris, Berlin, London, Rome, Sydney and The Hague. In response to the reformist protests, tens of thousands of people rallied in Tehran on 14 June to support the victory of Ahmadinejad.

On June 15th, Mousavi rallied, with anywhere from hundreds of thousands to three million, of his supporters in Tehran, despite being warned by state officials that any such rally would be illegal. The demonstration, the largest in the Islamic Republic of Iran's 30-year history, was Mousavi's first public appearance after the election. Protests focused around Azadi Tower, around which lines of people stretched for more than nine kilometers met. Gunshots were reported to have been fired at the rally, where Mousavi had spoke to his supporters saying, "The vote of the people is more important than Mousavi or any other person." All three reformist candidates appeared.

No violence occurred during the day, with a surprising near absence of state personnel nearby. The situation changed after dark. News agencies report that armed Basij forces have killed at least one protester, with many others injured. The forces fired directly into the crowds after demonstrators pelted them with stones and set the buildings besides them on fire. Some protesters had also tried to break into their compound. In an extremely rare lapse in government censorship, the state media aired clips of the 15 June protests.

Government crackdown

Arrests

In a series of raids across Tehran, the government arrested 170 people from all the major opposition factions. They included reformist politicians, notably Mohammed Reza Khatami, the brother of a former president of Iran, and other people suspected of organising demonstrations. Khatami was taken from his home but later released. According to the Los Angeles Times, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the main challenger to Ahmadinejad, was put under house arrest. A judiciary spokesman said they had not been arrested but that they were summoned and "warned not to increase tension," and later released. Anonymous sources said that the police stormed the headquarters of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's largest reformist party, and arrested a number of people.

Censorship

See also: Censorship in Iran and Communications in Iran

According to the Telegraph, on 14 June "Iran's regime was doing its utmost to choke off the flow of news from its capital." Reporters from the Italian public television broadcaster RAI stated that one of its interpreters was beaten with clubs by riot police and the officers then confiscated the cameraman's tapes. The Al Arabiya's offices in Tehran were closed on June 14 for a week by Iranian authorities, who gave no explanation for the decision. Meanwhile, the director of BBC World Service accused the Iranian Government of jamming its broadcasts to the country. Peter Horrocks said audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe had been affected by an electronic block on satellites used to broadcast the BBC Persian Television signal to Iran, adding: "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".

Al Jazeera English has leveled allegations of direct media censorship by the Iranian government, stating that "some of the newspapers have been given notices to change their editorials or their main headlines". BBC correspondent John Simpson was arrested, his material confiscated, and then released. NBC News offices in Tehran were raided, with cameras and other equipment confiscated. ABC News reporter Jim Sciutto also has had material taken. People from the German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD have been harassed as well, with men carrying batons and knives reportedly storming the ARD's Tehran office.

On 13 June 2009, when thousands of opposition supporters clashed with the police, Facebook was filtered again. Some news websites were also blocked by the Iranian authorities. Mobile phone services including text messaging also stopped or became very difficult to use. Specifically, all websites affiliated with the BBC were shut off, as were ones with The Guardian. Associated Press labeled the actions "ominous measures apparently seeking to undercut liberal voices". The restrictions were likely intended to prevent Mousavi's supporters from organizing large-scale protests. The protesters used phone calls, e-mails, and word of mouth to get around the measures.

Ahmadinejad has responded to concerns by saying, "[d]on't worry about freedom in Iran... Newspapers come and go and reappear. Don't worry about it." In response to the crackdown, anti-regime activists have repeatedly taken down Ahmadinejad's and Khamenei's websites.

Iranian political reactions

• Ayatollah Khamenei: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei initially urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad, labeling a victory by him as a "divine assessment." On June 15, however, Iran's supreme leader ordered an investigation into the claims of vote fraud. Referring to Mousavi's appeal letter about the irregularities, Khamenei said that "the Guardian Council has been emphasized to carry out investigation into this letter carefully," and probe allegations of Ahmadinejad cheating.
• Interior Ministry: Iranian Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli said that he has not received any "written complaint" about election fraud or irregularities. He also remarked that the vote proceeded in a way that "ruled out the possibility of cheating."
• Rafsanjani: Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was reported to have called a meeting of the Assembly of Experts, as they have the constitutional power to elect and dismiss the Supreme Leader.
• Ahmadinejad: On 13 June, the current President Ahmadinejad in a live address on state run television, called the election "completely free" and the outcome "a great victory" for Iran. He also said, "[t]oday, the people of Iran have inspired other nations and disappointed their ill-wishers... propaganda facilities outside Iran and sometimes inside Iran were totally mobilized against our people." Ahmadinejad praised the country’s youth as well, but made no direct mention of the protests. He later dismissed the protests, comparing them to "the passions after a football match."
• Mousavi: Mir Mousavi, the main opposition candidate, issued a statement saying, "I'm warning that I won't surrender to this manipulation." Mousavi lodged an official appeal against the result to the Guardian Council on 14 June. He is not optimistic about his appeal, saying that many of the group's members "during the election were not impartial".
• Karroubi: The reformist cleric Mehdi Karroubi, another opposition candidate, echoed Mr. Moussavi’s demand for the election to be canceled. He said, "I am announcing again 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."
• Rezai: Mohsen Rezai, the conservative opponent of Ahmadinejad, also running in the election, has stated that he recognizes the legitimacy of the victory. He has said, "[a] person who has become president through legal procedures is the president of all Iranian people". Previous reports had alleged that he planned to contest the results.
• Association of Combatant Clergy: A moderate clerical body, the Association of Combatant Clergy, issued a statement posted on reformist web sites saying the election was rigged and calling for it to be canceled, warning that "if this process becomes the norm, the republican aspect of the regime will be damaged and people will lose confidence in the system."
• Ibrahim Yazdi: Former Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi has said, "[w]e don't have any doubt. And as far as we are concerned, it is not legitimate. There were many, many irregularities." He also described the process as a "coup".
• Ata'ollah Mohajerani: Ata'ollah Mohajerani blasted the election as "The End of the Islamic Republic".

Other

Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, denounced the outcome. He also compared the government's post-election activities to those of the Chinese government during the Tiananmen Square protests. In protest of the election, 120 faculty members at Sharif University resigned.

International reactions

BBC News has described the overall reaction by the international community as "muted". Moussavi has not asked for any kind of foreign assistance or called on other leaders to comment. Analysts and reporters cited by media such as Fareed Zakaria GPS, the The New Yorker, Fox News Channel, BBC News, The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times, Al Jazeera English, and Reuters have expressed doubts about the result of the election.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said after the vote that "I think this election has b[r]ought out a lot of opposition to his policies in Iran, and I'm sure he'll listen to those opinions and hopefully moderate his position". Neoconservative political figure Richard Perle remarked that the results "were not a surprise". Senator Joseph Lieberman stated, "through intimidation, violence, manipulation, and outright fraud, the Iranian regime has once again made a mockery of democracy, and confirmed its repressive and dictatorial character."House Republican leader Eric Cantor stated, "silence in the face of Iran's brutal suppression of democratic rights represents a step backwards for homegrown democracy in the Middle East". Bill Kristol of The Weekly Standard commented that "[t]he U.S. has a huge stake in the possible transformation, or at least reformation, of the Iranian regime" and supported the Obama Administration's recent remarks on the election.

Expressions of concern

• Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said that his country was "deeply concerned" by reports of election irregularities.
• A statement by the administration of the European Union stated that the body is "concerned about alleged irregularities". On 15 June, EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg issued a joint statement expressing concern about the use of violence against peaceful demonstrators in Tehran. "This is a situation that the Iranian authorities must investigate," their statement said.
  • French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner expressed worries with the election results. He also told that it "was the opportunity for Ahmadinejad to open discussions" but, instead, they used brutality. On 15 April, his office summoned the Iranian Ambassador to France to talk about the vote-tampering allegations.
  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that "the German government is very concerned about the current situation." The chancellor demanded more information from Iranian authorities on the elections and the following unrest, saying the allegations of election fraud called for a "transparent investigation." She also criticised the use of "completely unacceptable force against protesters," the "wave of arrests" during the demonstrations and the fact that foreign media were being hampered from reporting on the developments. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier summoned the Iranian ambassador Monday to explain the disputed presidential election. "I have already prompted Iran, together with European colleagues today, to quickly shed light on what has happened there—if one can take the announced election results there seriously or not," he told German public television station ARD.
  • British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that they viewed "the implications of recent events in Iran with serious concern."
• Israel's deputy foreign ministry spokesman, Danny Ayalon, said: "With the results of the election in Iran, the international community must stop a nuclear Iran and Iranian terror immediately. If there was a shadow of a hope for change in Iran, the renewed choice of Ahmadinejad expresses more than anything the growing Iranian threat."
• Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said: "There is much unrest in Iran around the results, and there are allegations of electoral fraud. This is alarming". He also said that they would have to take the results that has been released under advisement, and stressed that there had not been fully democratic election in Iran, saying that: "This is about candidates that have had to go through a pre-approval to be allowed to be candidates, and this can not be said to be acceptable from normal democratic standards". Mazyar Keshvari, an Iranian-Norwegian politician for the Progress Party, called the election "a huge farse from start to finish" and a "show-off", and said that "Ahmadinejad exceeds Comical Ali with his statements about the election in Iran was entirely free."
• White House press secretary Robert Gibbs stated, "[l]ike the rest of the world, we were impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that this election generated, particularly among young Iranians. We continue to monitor the entire situation closely, including reports of irregularities". On 12 June—prior to the declaration of the winner—President Obama reacting to a question on the elections stated "We are excited to see what appears to be a robust debate taking place in Iran". Later, Vice President Biden has said, "[i]t sure looks like the way they're suppressing speech, the way they're suppressing crowds, the way in which people are being treated, that there's some real doubt". On 15 June, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly declared that the US was "deeply troubled by the reports of violent arrests and possible voting irregularities." The President echoed the statement later that day.
• United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated on 15 June that "the genuine will of Iranian people should be fully respected. I'm closely following how this investigation into this election result will come out". He neither endorsed nor criticized the proposed investigation.

Expressions of congratulations

• Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa congratulated Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his election victory. "We hope that the next term would witness progress on the relations between Iran and the Arab world and cooperation in establishing peace in the Middle East," he said.
  • Shiite lawmaker Sami Askari, a confidante of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, has said that he expects Iran-Iraq relations to stay the same as before and that it would not have changed had the election gone another way. Iraqi President Jalal Talebani and radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr all congratulated Ahmadinejad on this election victory. SCIRI leader Seyyed Abdul Aziz al-Hakim sent a notice praising Khamenei that did not mention Ahmadinejad.
  • Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar, also congratulated Ahmadinejad with his election victory.
  • Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent Ahmadinejad a cable in which he gave him his "best wishes for progress and prosperity" to the Iranian people.
  • Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman of the Hamas government in Gaza, hailed the election results and said: "The results of the elections in Iran show the wide public support for Iran's policy of challenge," referring to Ahmadinejad's anti-Israeli policy. Palestinian Islamic Jihad congratulated Ahmadinejad as well.
  • Mohammad-Mehdi Akef, a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood, sent a message of congratulations to Ahmadinejad.
  • Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora cabled Ahmadinejad, congratulating him on his election victory. Siniora said: "I am delighted to congratulate you on your election, and for the huge trust that the Iranian people have granted you. I hope that God will grant us success in the good historic relations between our two countries and two people."
  • File:Flag of Hezbollah.svg Hezbollah Leader, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah congratulated Ahmadinejad with his victory.
  • Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Monday congratulated Ahmadinejad on his reelection.
• Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, congratulated Ahmadinejad with his election victory.
• Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani both sent separate messages congratulating Ahmadinejad with his victory. Zardari said: "This is indeed testimony of the confidence of the people of Iran in your leadership qualities and an acknowledgement of your outstanding services."
• Turkish President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan both congratulated Ahmadinejad on his reelection.
• Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev congratulated Ahmadinejad with his victory on Monday, he said: "We place a particular emphasis on development of overall relations between our countries. We are pleased with close cooperation and constantly developing business relations that exist between our countries..."
• Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message to Ahmadinejad stating in part, "On behalf of the people of the Republic of Armenia and myself I warmly congratulate you on the occasion of your re-election as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and wish you new successes and achievements."
• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko congratulated Ahmadinejad on his re-election as president of Iran on Saturday. He said: "I'm convinced that Belarusian-Iranian constructive relations will develop dynamically and that mutually advantageous strategic projects will be realised for the sake of the peoples of our countries."
• Russian President Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Ahmadinejad on his re-election. He expressed hope Tehran-Moscow friendly relations would be expanded in line of the two nations' interests and peace and stability of the region.
• Kim Yong-Nam, Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea, sent a message to Ahmadinejad on Sunday. Kim "sincerely wished him success in his responsible work to frustrate pressure and interference of outsiders and build independent and prosperous Iran".
• Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, phoned Ahmadinejad to congratulate his "great and important victory for people fighting for a better world".

See also

• 2009 Iranian election protests

External links

Official links

• Coordination site for Ahmadinejad's supporters
• Mir Hossein Mousavi campaign site
• Mendhi Karroubi campaign site
• Mohsen Rezaee campaign site

Election aftermath

• Letter from Mousavi to the Guardian Council - Challenging the Results
• Iranian Protesters Fill Streets After Election Result - slideshow by The New York Times
• The Big Picture: Iran's Disputed Election - high res images by The Boston Globe
• Coverage from the Tehran Times, Aljazeera, BBC, New York Times, The Globe Opinion, Flickr Riot Photos