And those were the exact words in a Politico article by Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett. A voice of reason or missing the point?
Some “Iran experts” argue that Mousavi’s Azeri background and “Azeri accent” mean that he was guaranteed to win Iran’s Azeri-majority provinces; since Ahmadinejad did better than Mousavi in these areas, fraud is the only possible explanation.
But Ahmadinejad himself speaks Azeri quite fluently as a consequence of his eight years serving as a popular and successful official in two Azeri-majority provinces; during the campaign, he artfully quoted Azeri and Turkish poetry — in the original — in messages designed to appeal to Iran’s Azeri community. (And we should not forget that the supreme leader is Azeri.) The notion that Mousavi was somehow assured of victory in Azeri-majority provinces is simply not grounded in reality.
Okay, I under this argument, but what are the likelihood considering in past Iranian elections it’s hardly heard of that the candidate doesn’t carry his (or her) own hometown. The landslide victory claim by Ahmadenijad certainly warrants deeper anaylsis.
The Islamic Republic is a system with multiple power centers; within that system, there is a strong and enduring consensus about core issues of national security and foreign policy, including Iran’s nuclear program and relations with the United States. Any of the four candidates in Friday’s election would have continued the nuclear program as Iran’s president; none would agree to its suspension.
Not so fast! The Islamic Republic really has only one power center: Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Ahmadinejad is merely a puppet. Khamenei has limitless power in Iran, even the power to declare (or overturn) the results of an election. The post-election protests aren’t about who becomes president of Iran. It’s really about disgust towards the ayatollah. Iranians are sick and tired of a faux republic system where power lies in one man.
