High drama in Iran: Allegation Of Rigging And A Campaign Of Resistance, Islam and Politics, NewAgeIslam.com

Islam and Politics

High drama in Iran: Allegation Of Rigging And A Campaign Of Resistance

By Salman Haidar

THE election results thus came as a great disappointment to Mr Mousavi's supporters. Allegations of rigging were quick to surface. In fact, even during the campaign the ruling group of Mr Ahmedinejad had been accused of misusing state facilities for political advantage. During the election itself, there were some signs suggesting that all had not been above board, which further fuelled the allegations of rigging.

Since the result was declared, riding on the huge public discontent, Mr Mousavi has been leading a campaign of resistance and demanding annulment of the result on account of the poll process being hopelessly corrupted. He has several times expressed readiness to take part in the re-run of the election that he has demanded. All this was dismissed rather summarily by the winner, Mr Ahmedinejad, who said that his rival had been defeated and should accept the result. He also threatened to expose more cases of corruption by prominent persons, which was taken as a reference to former President Rafsanjani and showed the bitter differences between senior leaders thrown up as a result of the elections.

After such a divisive election, it was perhaps inevitable that in the aftermath there should be bad blood between the contending parties. What has made the situation very unsettled is the readiness, and ability, of both sides to organize mass demonstrations on the streets of Teheran. Mr Ahmedinejad’s supporters were out in force immediately after the result, to demonstrate his popular support. More strikingly, Mr Mousavi’s supporters, and he himself, have been taking part in massive demonstrations in the centre of Tehran. They have defied prohibitory orders and seem, by their sheer mass, to have quelled police efforts to make them back down. Thus we have seen Teheran brought to a halt by vast crowds flooding into the streets: the more upscale northern part of the city has turned out for the losing candidate, elsewhere there seems to be greater support for the incumbent President. These events come as a reminder that twice before in the last decade there have been large, disruptive street demonstrations by angry participants demanding change, but on these earlier occasions they did not get very far and achieved little.

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