Tenth Presidential Elections in Iran

In the tenth Presidential elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran, present Iranian President and presidential candidate was declared as winner by the election commission. According to the Government data and counting, presidential candidate and present President Mahmoud Ahmedi Nejad got 62.63% votes and his nearest rival Mir Hossein Mousavi received 33.75% votes. The other two candidates Mohsin Razaye and Mahdi Karoobi were nowhere in the race. In the third place Mohsin Razaye merely got 1.73% votes while Mahdi Karoobi could manage only 0.85% votes. The population of Iran is more than seven crores. Among these around four crores have the right to vote. This time, around 85% voters exercised their right to vote. This displays the interest and enthusiasm of the Iranian voters. According to the Government data and counting, collectively 3,91,65,191 votes were cast, 409389 votes were rejected due to some reasons. Out of these Ahmedi Nejad received 2,45,27,516 votes, Hossien Mousavi got 1,32,16,411 votes, Mohsin Razaye got only 782400 and Mahdi Karoobi could muster just 333635 votes. It is being told that this interest and enthusiasm could be seen both in urban as well as rural areas. But some sources say that Ahmedi Nejad is a favourite in the rural areas while Hossein Mousavi is popular in the urban areas, but the state wise data and counting show that leaving aside only two provinces Azerbaijan and Sestan and Baluchistan, in the remaining 28 states Ahmedi Nejad has a clear lead against his closest rival Hossein Mousavi.

The Guardian Council of the Shura gave consent to four candidates this time among which two are conservatives that is Mahmoud Ahmedi Nejad and Mohsin Razaye and the other two that is Mir Hossien Mousavi and Mahdi Karoobi are progressive. Two of them are related to political parties namely Ahmedi Nejad belongs to Abadgaran (Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran) and Mr.Mahdi Karoobi is related to the Etamad millee party, whereas Hossien Mousavi and Mohsin Razaye contested the elections as independent candidates. In terms of population Iran is one of the countries where rapid urbanisation is taking place. This can be established from the fact that in mere 20-25 years this change has taken place, as 25 years ago the rural population was 60% which is now percentage of the urban population. There are one dozen cities where the population is 10lakhs or more. The population of Tehran is more than 77lakhs, other bigger cities include Mashhad(27lakhs), Esfahan(19lakhs), Tabriz(16lakhs), Karaj(15lakhs) and Shiraz(12lakhs). Iran also has the honour that 60% of it’s population consists of people under 30 years of age. The percentage of people over 65 years of age is only 5%. But unemployment is also increasing here. This victory should have ignited new life in the country but the unsuccessful candidates have raised certain questions and accusations of malpractices against it. Country’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei has ordered the Guardian Council of the Shura to enquire about these accusations. An important aspect of this is that a hue and cry is being raised in Europe and America against this matter. Foreign mass media have created a hype about it as if a great turmoil has surfaced in Iran. America, Canada, European Union, France, Germany, Britain and Norway have expressed grave concern against these allegations of malpractices whereas Israel has declared it as a danger. Arab league, Iraq, Qatar, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Venezuela, Hamas, Hezbollah, Alekhwanul Muslemoon etc. have send congratulatory messages to President Mahmoud Ahmedi Nejad. It should be expected that the Iranians will soon overcome even this difficulty.

19/06/09 Editorial, sehrozaDAWAT, translated by: Asma Anjum Siddiqu