Groups contest Iranian election

By: Omkar Baxi

Posted: 7/3/09

Drexel students and faculty view the Iranian election protests as a sign of popular discontent with the Iranian government and agree that while the United States should not be politically involved in the election results, the violence against protestors should be condemned.

Iran's recent presidential election pitted the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against the reformist candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The Iranian Guardian Council, in charge of overseeing presidential elections, declared Ahmadinejad as the victor with a 63 percent lead.

According to Anne-Marie Obajtek-Kirkwood, head of French studies at Drexel, the Iranian elections were clearly not fair.

"Irregularities took many forms: voting ballots came in late, mobile voting boxes took fishy itineraries, the number of mobile voting boxes increased to 14,307, ten times more than in 2005," Obajtek-Kirkwood said. "The participation rate was 100 percent in 30 Iranian cities, a city like Taft had a rate of 141 percent, Kouhrang 132 percent and Chadegan in the province of Ispahan 120 percent."

Many Iranians contested the election results claiming that Mousavi and Karroubi had a greater political base than suggested by the published election results, according to CNN. As a result, many Iranians have protested in the cities, calling for a recount, despite anti-protest actions by the Revolutionary Guard.

According to Mike Hess, chairman of the College Republicans, the protests show the disparity between the Iranian public and their government.

"The Iranian president is a symbol of the Iranian government and represents the connection between the Iranian people and their government," Hess said. "I think this election has shown that the Iranian public is disenfranchised, and that's not what the people want. The ensuing protests have shown that the Iranians are not happy with their government."

Obajtek-Kirkwood agreed and said the outcome of the election has in a way reinforced the power of the clerics against the politics but has also made more of a dent into their hold.

"Khamenei has been challenged as no Supreme Leader ever has been. Iranian society is really divided," she said.

Iran's political structure employs a unique mix of theocracy and democracy. A mix of popular representatives and clerics - the Guardian Council - and the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, oversees the democratically elected president. According to CNN, the president's influence is largely determined by his interaction with these overseeing bodies, as evidenced by former president Mohammad Khatami's unsuccessful reform attempts.

Ahmadinejad has enjoyed a close relationship with Khamenei, sparking popular suspicions that his re-election may have been rigged. Despite the president's limited powers, analysts have argued that the protests are particularly important since they indicate a rising Iranian discontent with the current regime, according to The Economist.

"[The protests] reveal significant divisions within the Guardian Council and other bodies under the Supreme Leader," Michael Sullivan, a professor of history and politics at Drexel University, said. "The president is a significant position but he is a front man for deeper forces [and the protests indicate deeper conflict] similar to how Bush and Gore represented divisions within the Supreme Court."

According to The Economist, the current Iranian government has tried to quell protests by deploying the baseej, an Islamic militia. Amateur videos and accounts from Iran have shown the militia as a brutal police force cracking down on the protestors.

President Barack Obama released a public statement on June 20 stating, "The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching … We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights."

"I agree that the United States should not be involved in the Iranian election - Iran is a sovereign state. However, I think our government was slow in reacting - we should have condemned the civil rights atrocities sooner and more emphatically," Hess said.

However, Sullivan disagreed, stating "The world, and especially the United States … cannot have reacted any differently than it has - with general expressions of regret for violence and death. This 'crisis' in Iran, within the ruling class, will probably take a year or more to work itself out, and the U.S. would do best to stay out of it. Iran is no threat to us … and we ought to let its internal politics work itself out."

"Obama's comments were appropriate, and the Republicans calling for more aggressive actions are completely off. The U.S. should not force Iranians to voice opinions. Instead, we should give them the freedom to voice their own opinions [despite the strict control of the regime]," Julia Mostov, political science professor and associate vice provost for international programs, said.

On June 30, The Economist reported that although the protests have quieted in Iran, a political power-shift could occur, as conflicts deep within the government are resolved. Also, former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is rumored to be attempting to create a new council of religious leaders that would counter the overarching power of the Supreme Leader. If such a council were created, the change in Iran's political structure would be monumental.

"Ahmadinejad has his strong supporters as named above but so has Moussavi (and other reformist candidates before), in the middle-class and the youth: two thirds of the population is under 30, well-educated, and does not recognize itself in the ideals of the Islamic Revolution," Obajtek-Kirkwood said. "They see through the trappings and the hypocrisy of religion as a form of political power and are very critical of the regime, they also want a future, jobs. Though repression is brutal, this movement can only go on, you can't repress forever."

Meanwhile, third-party organizations like Avaaz.org are attempting to bolster the Iranian street protests. In particular, Avaaz.org is setting up proxy servers for Iranians to bypass government-created Internet restrictions in hopes of offering greater free speech.