[R-G] Iran: Mousavi States His Case

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/KF19Ak02.html>
Mousavi States His Case
by Kaveh L Afrasiabi

Mir Hossein Mousavi, the reformist candidate challenging Iran's
authorities on the result of last week's presidential elections, is a
masterful tactician who wants to overturn the re-election of his
rival, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, with allegations of a massive
conspiracy that he claims cheated him and millions of his supporters.

These supporters, identifiable by the color green they have adopted,
have taken to the streets in the tens of thousands and on Thursday
were to stage a "day of mourning" for what they say is a lost
election.  This follows a "silent" march through the streets of the
capital on Wednesday.  To date, at least 10 people -- some Iranian
sources say 32 -- have been killed in clashes.

Mousavi has lodged an official complaint with the powerful 12-member
Guardians Council, which has ordered a partial recount of the vote.
The complaint's main flaw is that it passes improper or questionable
pre-election conduct as something else, that is, as evidence of voting
fraud.

The protest, which seeks fresh elections, is short on specifics and
long on extraneous, election-unrelated complaints.  The first two
items relate to the televised debates that were held between the
candidates, rather than anything germane to the vote count.

There is also some innuendo, such as a claim that Ahmadinejad used
state-owned means of transportation to campaign around the country,
overlooking that there is nothing unusual about incumbent leaders
using the resources at their disposal for election purposes.  All
previous presidents, including the reformist Mohammad Khatami, who is
a main supporter of Mousavi, did the same.

Another complaint by Mousavi is that Ahmadinejad had disproportionate
access to the state-controlled media.  This has indeed been a bad
habit in the 30-year history of the Islamic Republic, but perhaps less
so this year because for the first time there were television debates,
six of them, which allowed Mousavi and the other challengers free
space to present their points of view.

With respect to alleged specific irregularities, the complaint cites a
shortage of election forms that in some places caused a "few hours
delay".  This is something to complain about, but it hardly amounts to
fraud, especially as voter turnout was a record high of 85% of the
eligible 46 million voters.  (Ahmadinejad was credited with 64% of the
vote.)

Mousavi complains that in some areas the votes cast were higher than
the number of registered voters.  But he fails to add that some of
those areas, such as Yazd, were places where he received more votes
that Ahmadinejad.

Furthermore, Mousavi complains that some of his monitors were not
accredited by the Interior Ministry and therefore he was unable to
independently monitor the elections.  However, several thousand
monitors representing the various candidates were accredited and that
included hundreds of Mousavi's eyes and ears.

They should have documented any irregularities that, per the
guidelines, should have been appended to his complaint.  Nothing is
appended to Mousavi's two-page complaint, however.  He does allude to
some 80 letters that he had previously sent to the Interior Ministry,
without either appending those letters or restating their content.

Finally, item eight of the complaint cites Ahmadinejad's recourse to
the support given by various members of Iran's armed forces, as well
as Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki's brief campaigning on
Ahmadinejad's behalf.  These are legitimate complaints that
necessitate serious scrutiny since by law such state individuals are
forbidden to take sides.  It should be noted that Mousavi can be
accused of the same irregularity as his headquarters had a division
devoted to the armed forces.

Given the thin evidence presented by Mousavi, there can be little
chance of an annulment of the result.

Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New
Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) . For his
Wikipedia entry, click here. His latest book,  Reading In Iran Foreign
Policy After September 11 (BookSurge Publishing , October 23, 2008) is
now available.