My Experience Watching Iran Election News Coverage and Celebration

I’ve been reading and following Iranian’s election news for more than a week now. The pre-election coverage was not very good. There are a number of contributing factors to this; namely

• Uncertainty about the candidates
• short campaign time (this was intentional)
• faulty polls (most of the polls were putting Qalibaf as the front-runner, Rowhani was not even in the list of the top three candidates)
• uncertainty about the voters (Iranians were very much undecided about their candidates.
• Also, many voters said they would be staying at home and not participating in the election) and
• western journalists/news media claiming they were not getting proper authorization to travel to Iran or bared from reporting in some cases (through threats and intimidation).

The Election Day started with Iran’s most famous VIP, the supreme leader (Rahbar) himself, casting his vote early morning. He said that not even his kids know whom he is voting for. This is so unlike four years ago where he specifically endorsed Ahmadinejad for the second term. The plan backfired and Ahmadinejad turned out to be the biggest thorn on his side. So, maybe this time he’s wise to keep quiet about his favorite choice. He urged all Iranians to vote even those who are not very supportive of the system/government (I rephrased what he said). And of course, no interview with Khamenei would ever be perfect without the obligatory condemnation of the west; Khamenei said ‘To Hell With you’ to the western powers who dared question the selection of their candidates and for saying how undemocratic their political system really is.

I was watching interviews with Iranians who were already in lines at the voting centers. A number of Iranians who initially said they were not planning to vote showed up anyway because they were persuaded by their family and friends. Many Iranians who voted for Rowhani said they want to see someone moderate for a change. Others who voted for Rowhani believe while he may not be the best candidate but they are still voting for him because he’s using a slightly different tone from other candidates. A lot of Rowhani’s supporters were among those who were worried about the economy, western backed sanction and personal freedom. Overall, no matter who the Iranians were voting for, they all said that coming out to vote is a social event or showing of the solidary for their country.

Guess who showed up in the late afternoon. The infamous ex-President of Iran, Ahmadinejad. I was expecting him to act like a punk but apparently he was somewhat subdued this time. I guess he’s no more than a toothless tiger now that he’s tenure is almost over and his plan to cling to power via his successor’s failed after it was foiled by the hardliners who saw him as a threat to their way of life. Though I still wonder what’s the future going to hold for him. The political outlook doesn’t look good for him since the reformists are now in the office of Presidency. And he had already burned all the bridges with the conservatives/hardliners.


The voting hours were extended at least four times right up to 11 pm. The result that was supposed to be announced at 3am was postponed until 8am Saturday. A lot of people were surprised at the hold-up. The result from 2009 Presidential election was announced within the two/three hours after the closure of voting centers. I’ve seen some people again expressing doubt and suspicious about the 2009 Presidential election and comparing with the clear victory for the reformists.

I woke up early on Saturday morning and tuned to Press TV (English) hoping to catch some live Iranian election reporting. I was very disappointed after awhile. PressTV was not covering the most important event in Iran! Their own election. They had news about a protest in Jordan. I initially thought the protest was about something very important because well..it had to be important to pre-empt their own election coverage. Nope, it was just a regular protest about Jordanians being unhappy with their economy. Okay, so I waited.

The next news item was a sandcastle competition in a European country. Then the news turned to hot air balloons. I was getting very impatient by then. Come on, where’s the election news. All they had was news ticker showing candidate’s vote count. But no real live TV coverage. I hardly watch Press TV. My last attempt to watch it was a year and half ago. I don’t think it covered anything I was interested in back then. I was hoping that at least this time as the official Iranian news channel, PressTV should have a monopoly on election coverage. But no such thing. For some reason, they were not interested in broadcasting their own election live and I guess I was in no mood to watch anything other than Iranian Presidential Election. The news section ended. A documentary about pig farming (Pig Business) was then aired. Argghh…this was getting hopeless. I turned off the TV and went online.

When the counting began to show a clear lead favoring Rowhani, people were ecstatic and very much in celebratory mode. Soon enough, the announcement came in that Rowhani had a clear victory and a mandate to form the next government. The online newspapers began showing Rowhani’s picture. I was reading news from a popular internet website. As soon as Rowhani’s picture emerged as the next President of Iran, the comments section was flaming with disappointing posts from users who didn’t know much about Iran’s politics. To them it was just a case of “Oh No! The Iranian Mullah won a victory for their regime”. Much later, some folks clarified that although Hassan Rowhani is dressed very much like a Mullah but his ideology is not aligned at all with the hardliners of Iran’s whose candidates are all dressed in western style suits (minus the tie because tie is a symbol of western imperialism :rolleyes: )

The Internet began to buzz with pictures and videos of celebration in Iran. Iranians were singing and dancing in the streets celebrating their victory. Congratulatory messages started coming in from the reformists. I’ve seen some people chanting support for Musavi and displaying sarcastic remarks about the 63% of the population who supposedly voted for Ahmadinejad's second term. Where are those people now? I’ve also seen remarks from people who hope Rowhani’s victory would guarantee a release of their political dissidents. Most of all people were hoping for a better life for the Iranians.

The conservatives/hardliners who had all of their candidates defeated, didn’t focus much on their defeat or say much about Rowhani’s victory or their gloomy outlook/future. Their newspapers on Saturday (and I didn’t read enough of them to form an objective opinion) painted the high voter turnout in the election as a victory against the west.

It’s too early to say how Rowhani’s presidency will look like. People are hopeful. We still have to wait and see.

Iran's new President is a Reformist

Hassan Rohani is Iran's new President. He defeated five conservatives (hardliners)/semi conservatives-independent convincingly with 51% of the votes. His closest rival, Qalibaf, managed to only get 16% of the votes. Jalili and Mohsen Rezaee are almost tied in the third place with 10-11%. Since one of the candidate have the majority of the votes, he won.

This is a stunning victory for the Reformists of Iran. I'm glad that they came together under a single candidate no matter how imperfect he was. Rohani is probably not the most ideal Reformists leader, but the body that selects Iran's Presidential candidate disqualified a lot of their candidates. After seeing today's result, I bet some members of the Guardian Council would be regretting their decision to eliminate Rafsanjani from the race. If they had only allowed Rafsanjani to run, he would've probably split the reformists vote between them. I don't think people like Rafsanjani can be persuaded to drop from a race or is win-able on a reformist ticket at least not in the current era. Most of his political life seems to be dedicated serving the establishment and he's also very wealthy. So, he has quite a bit of baggage.

Rezaee also did very well in this election. The supposedly front runner, Qalibaf, didn't deliver. The other establishment candidates were rejected by the Iranians.

Hassan Rohani will definitely face challenges from the unelected branch of government like the rest of other Presidents. But I hope he can improve the life of average Iranians and rein in the other side who think they represent the will of God. Hopefully, he can get many of the political prisoners out.

Interesting piece about Ahmadinejad’s Legacy

From Reza Aslan. Author of a couple of Islamic books.

According to him, the outgoing President of Iran will be best remembered not only for his cringe worthy statements but also for cracking the glass ceiling (of not questioning the rule of the Mullahs). I’m quoting him here

The mullahs' conflict with Ahmadinejad goes to the very heart of what constitutes political legitimacy in the Islamic Republic. In Iran's byzantine government, the elected president is supposed to represent the sovereignty of the people while the unelected supreme leader represents the sovereignty of God. In practice, however, nearly all levers of political power rest in the hands of the supreme leader, leaving the president with very little control over policy decisions.

That is just how the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, wanted it. Khomeini's religio-political concept of velayat-e faqih, or "guardianship of the jurist" argued that in the absence of the Muslim messiah (known as the Mahdi), the powers of government should rest with the messiah's representatives on Earth -- that is, the ayatollahs

In his second term, Ahmadinejad steadily chipped away at the clergy's religious, economic, and political control. First, he started questioning the mullahs' self-proclaimed status as the arbiters of Islamic morality -- and especially its obsession with proper Islamic dress.

The president then began repeatedly criticizing the clergy for their enormous wealth, which stood in stark contrast to most Iranians' economic suffering under international sanctions. In a surprise move, Ahmadinejad curtailed the amount of money that the government pays to religious institutions, which have ballooned over the past three decades into a source of tremendous personal enrichment for many in the clerical elite.

But Ahmadinejad's challenge to the clerical regime goes beyond any single skirmish with the supreme leader. Perhaps more important is his very public questioning of the foundation of the Islamic Republic's political and religious authority. "Administering the country should not be left to the [supreme] leader, the religious scholars, and other [clerics]," the president said in 2011.

Consider, for example, Ahmadinejad's much-maligned claims of being in direct communication with the Mahdi. Such statements are not the mad ravings of a religious fanatic -- they are a public repudiation of the entire system upon which the Islamic Republic was built. After all, if a layperson like Ahmadinejad can directly consult with the Mahdi, then what use are the ayatollahs? And if the clerics are not the only ones with a direct line to the Mahdi, why have they been given political powers over the Mahdi's government? As Mashaei put it, "Running a country is like a horse race, but the problem is that [the clerics] are not horse racers."

You should check out the whole piece here.

Iranians are either voting or not tomorrow

We haven’t been having good news coverage about the election in Iran. Most of the sources seem to be repeating the same thing over and over again. Based on an informal poll (don’t really know how reliable it is), the Mayor of Tehran is leading the race followed closely by Khamenei’s puppet Saeed Jalili. Reformists may or may not come together under Rowhani especially since the other Reformists guy who had more support has dropped out from the race. I think he did well, since splitting the vote between the two of them wouldn’t be good for either. Iran’s ex-Presidents, Rafsanjani and Khatami, have both endorsed the only Reformist candidate in the race.

I’ve been reading people’s opinions, inside and outside of Iran. I’m sensing that there’s a strong group of people who are pretty happy with the selection of the candidates. These people who are most likely to vote for Qalibaf or Jalili believe that in this tough time, Iran’s problems can only be resolved if they stick together under the leadership, support the best interests of Iran via strong revolutionary methods, being faithful to Islam and sticking up to western powers.

Mohsen Rezaee, another candidate, is Iran’s Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich. He seems to be running in every race and not getting more than 2% of the vote. This time around, he may get more supporters (voters) since the biggest problem facing the Iranians is the economy and he seems to have some credibility in this area. It’s hard to say for sure if he’s going to become the lead contender since the odds are heavily stacked against him.

We haven’t seen much of the Reformists in politics, at least not since 2001. In the last election (2009), which was a complete disaster, their candidate Mir Hussain Mossavi, was defeated by the incumbent President, Ahmadinejad. Remembering the past, I think even in the time of Khatami when the reformists won both consequent elections with the highest votes ever; they faced much obstructions and oppositions from the unelected conservatives. And if you can’t change anything when you already have 70% of the country behind you then there’s really something wrong with the political system.

There’s a large group of Iranians who will not be voting in the election. Why bother to vote when the authority has already hand-picked the candidates and there’s no telling if your votes would even be counted. Are any of the candidates even remotely anti-establishment? I was reading an opinion of an Iranian who expressed deep hatred and contempt for Khamenei. To him, Khamenei is nothing but a dictator. When he heard Khamenei’s urging every Iranians to vote in Friday’s election, he adamantly refused to follow the order. He won’t be voting. :)

Since Iran is still situated in the region overrun with dictators, I think voting is a novel experience and so the Iranians should vote, even if to cast a blank vote or vote for everyone in the list. Ideally you should vote for the guy who you think is the best that will represent your interest. And if this is not possible then perhaps look for someone who is less against your interest. If you can’t find anyone to vote, then perhaps next time considering running in the election so you can vote for the most desirable candidate.