Persons interested in gaining greater insight into whether there was election fraud in the recent Iranian voting process should read a recent Chatham House (Royal Institute for International Affairs) Report available at
http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/14234_iranelection0609.pdf
Iranians appearing on television saying they were acting due the encouragement of Voice of America and BBC is a good illustration, assuming that they are not supporters of the existing system, of what people might do if they feel that their families will be harmed if they do not cooperate.
The West has learned a lot about the consequences of giving people hoping for political reform false hopes since Hungary 1956.
One might wonder what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad and Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenka might have discussed during their reciprocal visits in recent years. Conceivably, Mr. Ahmadi-Nejad might have solicited advice about how best to achieve “electoral” victory, for example how to tally millions of votes in a matter of hours.
In comparison to his counterpart, Mr. Lukashenka enjoys two key advantages: (i) his principal political opponents seem to lack deep roots in Belarusian society, and hence behave more akin to dissidents, and (ii) Belarus ranks low on most countries’ foreign policy agenda. For Mr. Ahmadi-Nejad this is not the case.
Former Iran Premier Mir-Hossein Moussavi is an experienced, credible national leader with considerable support among the frustrated Iranian mass, which have been experiencing a decline in its living standards; and while sharing Belarus’ status as a pariah state, Iran’s nuclear program is of great concern to world leaders.
Elections do not a democracy make — often they are merely mechanisms for creating the illusion of legitimacy when none exists. As it has been said, what is important about elections is not how people vote, but how the ballots are counted.
Iranian students have a tradition in toppling regimes that are not responsive to the people’s needs. It should come as no surprise that both the Chinese and Russian leadership believe the election outcome is already a settled matter.
Tags: Counting Votes, How does one count the vote? Generational Change in Iran, How Governments Should Act When They Gain Their Office by Fraud, Lending Moral Support to the Reformers
