[Dean's World] Ali Eteraz: Iran's Reformists Make Electoral Comeback

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Ali Eteraz:
Iran's Reformists Make Electoral Comeback
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1166896955.shtml


   The similarities between Bush and Nejad do not stop. They started off
   merely looking alike: short beady eyed weasel with combovers and
   stupid laughs; they both tricked their populations into voting
   [1]against their own interests by using social values; they both
   [2]became apocalyptic psychos; their approval ratings [3]sank to
   equivalent lows simultaneously; and they both, now, have suffered
   beatings at the midterm elections [4]at the hands of the
   "progressives" and "reformists."

     But on Thursday, Ahmadinejad had no reported comments on the final
     election results, which showed moderate conservatives opposed to
     his policies had won a majority of seats. The second biggest bloc
     of vote-getters were reformists, making a comeback after being
     driven out of local councils, parliament and the presidency over
     the past five years -- a result many analysts interpreted as a
     repudiation of the status quo.

     Instead, Ahmadinejad spent the day in western Iran, telling crowds
     that Iran would never dismantle its nuclear program and referring
     to President Bush as the "most hated person" in Iran -- the kind of
     fiery focus on international issues that a number of analysts said
     was behind his loss at the polls.

   *

     Similar anti-Ahmadinejad sentiment appeared in final results of a
     parallel election for the Assembly of Experts, the body of 86
     senior clerics that monitors Iran's supreme Islamic leader and
     chooses his successor.

     "We consider this government's policy to be against Iran's national
     interests and security," said Saeed Shariati, a leader of the
     Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's largest reformist party.
     His party seeks democratic changes within the ruling Islamic
     establishment and supports resumed relations with the United
     States.

     A big boost for moderates was the large number of votes for former
     President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who lost to Ahmadinejad in the 2005
     presidential election runoff. Rafsanjani, who also supports
     dialogue with the United States, got the most votes of any
     candidate from Tehran to win re-election to the assembly.

   Hey Ahmedinejad, keep focusing on Israel, ok? Just like Bush focused
   on Iraq. Focus your way straight out of office.

References

   1. http://avari.blogs.com/weblog/2005/06/this_is_just_as.html
   2. http://eteraz.wordpress.com/2006/09/21/iran-prez-ahmedinejad-declared-a-prophet/
   3. http://eteraz.wordpress.com/2006/10/04/ahmedinejads-approval-rating-as-bad-as-bush/
   4. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/22/MNG2MN48DN1.DTL