Iranian elections 09

This is something I've been planning on writing about since I turned on the news last Sunday (14th June) to find that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been re-elected as President of Iran with over 60% of the vote. My genuine reaction, as my girlfriend will testify, was to remark that if he was going to rig the election, he could at least rig it so the result was at least plausible. I for one am not of the 'Ahmadinejad couldn't possibly have won' argument; I think its perfectly possible that he did indeed poll the most votes, but I remain sceptical that he won by such a huge vote, and I think this scepticism is justified for a number of reasons.

The reports of districts where the number of votes cast was higher than the number of registered voters is one such reason, as are the reports of the other candidates being heavily defeated electorally in their own hometowns. To be sure, it will be interesting to see what the outcome of any investigations into electoral fraud will be.

Nonetheless, what makes me sceptical above all is the widespread suppression of dissent in the aftermath of the elections. I've kept a close eye on the developments in Iran and I've been surprised at the extent to which the authorities have suppressed communications, whether this be mobile phones, broadcasting, or elements of the internet. Iran's leadership may talk about the strength of its democracy, but to me the true mark of a democratic, free country is an abilty to tolerate dissent and allow a reasonable degree of freedom of speech. It strikes me that if the Iranian leadership were confident that Ahmadinejad had won fairly, they would be able to deal with any questioning of the result in a fair manner, rather than resort to violence and threats against supporters of the opposition.

Doing a degree in Politics has made me somewhat wary of always holding up other societies to Western democratic ideals. I don't agree with the presence of religious figures in politics who are there by virtue of their position and not any expertise they may or many not have. Therefore, I'm suspicious of democracies with a strong theocratic element such as Iran's, with a clerical Supreme Leader, but I would add that I respect the right of any nation to work by such a system. Nonetheless, to me freedom of speech and the ability to express dissent against the government is the hallmark of a true democracy, and it disturbs me that such dissent is being reacted to with such a strong hand in Iran.

It will be interesting to see how things develop in Iran. It seems to me that the supporters of the opposition will not stop in their quest to get the result anulled, or the election re-run. As information continues to flow out of the country from a variety of sources, through various types of media that the authorities appear to be struggling to control, one gets the feeling that this issue is far from over.