[Marxism] Iran's rural vote and election fraud

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

From:   Z Net - The Spirit Of Resistance Lives
URL:    http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/21813

Iran's Rural Vote and Election Fraud

June 27, 2009

By Eric Hooglund


I just heard a CNN reporter in Tehran say that Ahmadinejad's support 
base was rural. Is it possible that rural Iran, where less than 35 
percent of the country's population lives, provided Ahmadinejad the 63 
percent of the vote he claims to have won? That would contradict my own 
research in Iran's villages over the past 30 years, including just 
recently. I do not carry out research in Iran's cities, as do foreign 
reporters who otherwise live in the metropolises of Europe and North 
America, and so I wonder how they can make such bold assertions about 
the allegedly extensive rural support for Ahmadinejad.

Take Bagh-e Iman, for example. It is a village of 850 households in the 
Zagros Mountains near the southwestern Iranian city of Shiraz. According 
to longtime, close friends who live there, the village is seething with 
moral outrage because at least two-thirds of all people over 18 years of 
age believe that the recent presidential election was stolen by 
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

When news spread on Saturday (June 13) morning that Ahmadinejad had won 
more than 60 percent of the vote cast the day before, the residents were 
in shock. The week before the vote had witnessed the most intense 
campaigning in the village's history, and it became evident that support 
for Mir-Hossein Mousavi's candidacy was overwhelming. Supporters of 
Ahmadinejad were even booed and mocked when they attempted rallies and 
had to endure scolding lectures from relatives at family gatherings. "No 
one would dare vote for that hypocrite," insisted Mrs. Ehsani, an 
elected member of the village council.

The president was very unpopular in Bagh-e Iman and in most of the other 
villages around Shiraz, primarily because of his failure to deliver on 
the reforms he promised in his successful 2005 presidential campaign. He 
did have some supporters. Village elders confided, "10 to 15 percent of 
village men, mostly [those who were] Basijis [militia members] and those 
who worked for government organizations, along with their families."

Carloads of villagers actually drove to Shiraz to participate in the 
massive pro-Mousavi rallies that were held on the three nights prior to 
the balloting. And election-day itself was like a party in Bagh-e Iman. 
Many people openly announced their intentions to vote for Mousavi as 
they cheerfully stood in line chatting with neighbors, and local 
election monitors estimated that at least 65 percent of them actually 
did so. "Although some probably really voted for [Ayatollah Mehdi] 
Karubi, who also is a man of the people," said election monitor Jalal.

Of course, the Basijis with their mothers, wives and sisters did come 
out in force but were quiet, apparently timid about revealing their 
voting intentions "because they probably voted for Ahmadinejad," 
continued Jalal. But he insisted that they did not count for more than 
20 or 25 percent of the vote.

By Saturday evening, the shock and disbelief had given way to anger that 
slowly turned into palpable moral outrage over what came to be believed 
as the theft of their election. The proof was right in the village: 
"Interior Ministry officials came from Shiraz, sealed the ballot boxes, 
and took then away even before the end of voting at 9 pm," said Jalal. 
In all previous elections, a committee comprised of representative from 
each political faction had counted and certified the results right in 
the village. The unexpected change in procedures caught village monitors 
off guard, as it did everywhere else in the country.

By Saturday evening, small groups of demonstrators were roaming the main 
commercial streets of Shiraz, a city of 1.5 million residents, and 
protesting the announced results as a fraud. People refused to believe 
that Ahmadinejad could have been re-elected. Larger demonstrations took 
place on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, beginning in the late afternoon and 
continuing long after the sun had set. These attracted carloads of 
supporters from Bagh-e Iman and other villages, including several that 
were 60 kilometers from Shiraz.

Although the crowds shouted slogans such as "Death to Dictatorship," 
most protestors shouted "Allah-o-akbar," the popular chant of the 
1978-79 Revolution. Indeed, in Shiraz, thousands climbed unto the roofs 
of their homes Sunday to shout 'Allah-o-akbar' for several hours.

Most villagers are supporters of the Islamic Republic, but they are 
ready for the reforms that they say are essential so that their children 
will have a secure economic future. They saw hope in Mousavi's promise 
to implement reforms, even though he is a part of the governing elite.

But that political elite is divided over how Iran should be governed: a 
transparent democracy where elected representatives enact laws to 
benefit the people or a 'guided democracy' in which a select few make 
all decisions because they do not trust the masses to make the right 
ones. This astute political insight is one that is prevalent in Iran but 
seems to have escaped the notice of the Western reporters who are trying 
to explain Iran's political crisis with resort to simplistic stereotypes.

Eric Hooglund is professor of politics at Bates College, Lewiston, 
Maine, and editor of the scholarly journal Middle East Critique. He is 
an expert on Iran, and his most recent publication is "Thirty Years of 
Islamic Revolution in Rural Iran" in Middle East Report, no. 250, spring 
2009.



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