Iran's Election: Persian Blogosphere
Just some days to Iranian presidential election, the Iranian blogosphere published a huge amount of articles on weblogs about its diverse thoughts on the capable candidate. They have left no stream of thought unrepresented.
From the ocean of persian blogosphere, i decided to chose some blogs which are more straight in their voting attitude and have given more clear reasons. Thanks to Zahra HB who helped me alot in the matter.
Estimated to be about 110,000 active Iranian blogs mostly written in Persian, You might guess there will be so many voices among bloggers not heard via Iranian official media. Just in the past weeks, There’ve been “hot” discussions in persian between Iranian bloggers and they remained very split over supporting a particular candidate. Though every one has his own reasons for voting his ideal one, i failed to find one particular ‘known’ blogger who supports Mohsen Rezaei.
Karroubi for the semi-referendum
Gooshzad supports Mehdi Karrubi and thinks Mousavi’s background is darker than Karroubi’s: “Mousavi’s returning to the Imam’s manifest just shows that he does have the anti-imperalistic mind.”
He reasons that while Karroubi has had several meetings with the National-Religious front of Iran (Melli Mazhabi) and Office for Strengthening Unity (Tahkim Vahdat), Mousavi tries not to mention any comments which he considers might be offensive toward conservative groups:
” He avoids meetings with the members of Strengthening Unity and does not allow National-Religious front’s members to speech in meeting of parties. He talks about freedom of speech but during his prime ministry, Keyhan and Ettela’at were the only newspaper allowed to publish.”
Some might say that Karroubi’s vows are not practical and he also does not believe in them. Even with this assumption, Gooshzad prefers to vote for his vows:
“So that after six months, when there was a request for reform of the Constitution, respecting the rights of citizenship, eliminating discrimination against women, limited autonomy to ethnic minorities and support the establishment of private televisions, the keyhan newspaper can not write that people voted for ‘The revival of the pure Islam’ and ‘returning to the Imam’s line’.”
Gooshzad thins that voting is better than staying out the race:
“It was easy for me to sit down and assume Karroubi, Moussavi, Ahmadinejad and Rezaei all the same and like my father be proud of myself for not having a sinle election stamp in my ID card. But if all participate, this election has the ability to turn into a semi-referendum.”
Mir Hussein for The element of Honesty
Mohammad Reza Yazdan Panah, writer of “Booye Khak” along with some other bloggers support Mir Hussein Mussavi. He writes in his blog that the political system in Iran will still remain the Islamic Republic on 1392 (2012).
He thinks as to such condition, participating in Election and voting for a candidate who at least repsresents part of his needs and expectations, will remain the only choice and suddenly the most realistic one
He thinks authority establishes itself, once that representatives of that in the political system manage to establish themselves:
“With the Ahmadinejad’s presidency, due to the fact that it guarantees him and his methods for at least the next four years, is like giving him a white signed cheque to implement everything he could not or did not do in the past four years.
At the moment he sees no significant difference in Mir Hossein Mousavi’s viewpoints and stances and Mehdi Karubi’s. But he has his reasons to vote for Mir Hussein:
“Maybe i even give higher scores to Karoobi whom with more excitement (and not necessarily transparency) points the more avant-garde demands in this field.
However, the reality is that there is an element in Mousavi’s action and vows, a distinction with the other reformist candidate. The element is his honesty. An honesty that i found it in sincere Mir Hussein.
Mir Hussein represents himself. He announces the most modern statement about press freedom and at the same time defends Basij. His charter of human rights is based on the international standards,at the moment he clearly remarks his beliefs to principles of Islam.
Honesty is rare item in the market of Iranian politics and he’s offered such an item in this chaotic market.”
Ahmadinejad for the Active Diplomacy
Kharchangzadeh is a PHD student currently resides in Norway. He has to go long way to Oslo to participate in Iran’s Election. He is a critical supporter of Ahmadinejad and says that he’s mentioned his reasons within the past three years. Years of Ahmadinejad’s government was also the years that he was forced to live in the west:
“And i will be in the west, will live here and will have roots here, even for the coming four years that Ahmadinejad will be on power. But I’ll vote for Ahmadinejad since he’s provided a New definition of the New World Order and made the world’s superpower oppressors restless. “
He says he votes for him, for the fact that he’s represented an Iran, firm on ideals and scientific achievements in the international community and supports him for his active diplomacy based on Islamic Republic ideals:
“I support Ahmadinejad whom with his active diplomacy clear and consistent based on the Islamic Revolution’s ideals has expanded thoughts of justice to the remotest parts of the world, from small islands in Africa to the heart of South America. So that the foreign ministers of world’s superpowers express concern about influence and power of Iran’s Islamic and anti-imperialistic thoughts.
He also supports Ahmadinejad’s stance against Israeli government as the only Racist government in the world :
“Today i vote for Ahmadinejad whom with his penetrating and fiery language, spreaded a wave of awakaning the nations against the occupiers, criminals and aggressors in occupied Palestine.
I’ll vote for Ahmadinejad whom with his clear intellect will change the eerie relation between Iran and arabs to a more secure one and will turn their historical doubt and fear to a constructuve frienship for improving legitimacy of Islam around the world.”
The “Iranian” Politics
Again another ‘usual’ election. Like the other elections around the world, Candidates who ruin each other and later praise each other. Mottos, struggles, debates, excitements, cheers and tears;
While The Political Fever is on its utmost hit, Bamdadi mentions some good advices for the candidates. As he says candidates and their supporters should not forget that talking and promising seem so simple to give. But when we add the responsibility and duty of respond in return to 70 million Iranians, they become the most difficult tasks:
“Ladies and gentlemen! In this election market that the mechanisms of social response is at the least point, it’s better not to give some superfictional vows that later might make one ashamed in front of people and the history.”
P.S: My posts on Iranian election do not specify any candidate. BTW I translated different parts of the articles above from Persian to English. It was such a difficult job to do with my busy schedule. So if there’s any mistakes, you might pardon me.
Join the Conversation
Are these elections monitored?
Micheal W, are Israeli elections monitored? You can get the answer that way..
Shahrazad,
I’m just asking because how do we know the Supreme Leader doesn’t just pick the President. How do we know it’s not an illusion.
I suspect Israel’s elections are “real” because of several reasons.
1. The government changed parties through elections several times in a rather short amount of time.
2. Arab parties winning seats.
3. PM’s kicked out of office because of criminal charges.
4. A few early elections because of collapse of government/coalition.
5. It takes weeks for a leading party to form a coalition.
6. No party has ever won enough seats to form a government on its own.
As for Iran – has the Supreme Leader ever been seriously challenged?
Shahrazad,
Very interesting post and very useful for poor people who can’t read Persian.
I think the most important statistic of these elections would be the number of people who decide not to vote. I honestly don’t think that there would be a significant change in policies with some other president. The repression of student demonstrations and closing down of newspapers were prevalent during Khatami’s term, when the majlis was controlled by reformers. My only hope is that the next president will be able to do something about the inflation and unemployment.
Regarding elections in Israel: they are monitored. Every party has the right to a representative in a polling station. This is actually one of the reasons why elections in Israel are so expensive, since each of the monitors gets a nice paycheck for sitting in a chair all day and then spending a couple of hours counting votes. Obviously, there are still cases of fraud, but they’re quite rare.
What differentiates Israeli and Iranian elections is the screening process. In Iran, most people who want to run are not allowed to by the Guardian Council. In Israel, very few candidates, who espouse racist views (hard-right) or support armed struggle against Israel and the liquidation of Israel (very hard left), are not allowed to run. The interpretation of the law by the progressive courts in Israel is quite lenient. Arab parties, for example, whose members proclaimed support for “muqawama” and insistence on the “right of return”, were still allowed to run in the last elections. Balad, the party formerly headed by Azmi Bashara, who fled Israel to avoid facing charges of espionage for Hizbollah during the 2nd Lebanon War, was allowed to run and won 3 seats (out of 120). You might point out that Lieberman’s party and two other right-wing parties that support ideas like loyalty pledges, which are racist, were allowed to run too. Still, I think that the fact that the political system and the court system allow pretty much for every party to run, even ones that supports the end of Israel as a Jewish state (right of return) and discrimination against the Arab population (loyalty pledges), goes to show that Israeli elections are democratic.
Elizabeth and Shahrazad, I appreciate greatly what you have written. I have been discussing the characteristics of different political systems coincidentally with my students recently. I mentioned Israel and what little I knew about their parlimentary system…I am relieved to confirm my general comments by Elizabeth’s opinions here. And about Iran, I am ALWAYS interested in what is happening to my students there (even though they don’t tell me much in English). I suspected the range of results for what we can reasonably expect in Iran, and you have confirmed that here too. I continue to be rather hopeful.
I used to be Edo River, but changed my name because actually the Koma river is closer to my home.