Monday
Nov232009
Iran Revelation: Pro-Government MP Admits Election Was Manipulated
Monday, November 23, 2009 at 7:42
The Latest on Iran (23 November): Reading the Signals of Abtahi’s Release
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Yesterday, I noticed this entry in the blog of Pedestrian, Sidewalk Lyrics:
I had noted the Zakani statement in our updates but my translation was not strong to bring out the analysis offered by Pedestrian. He adds, from Zakani's speech, the evidence of Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei that votes were manipulated through "ballot-stuffing" in the last five hours of the day.
And there is this: "In the statement released by the six-member Parliamentary committee, the lines congratulating Ahmadinejad were crossed out and this was done by “a source close to the speaker of parliament” [Ali Larijani] who stated that “fraud in the election” had taken place.
Beyond the election, here's a bonus revelation which indicates why the National Unity Plan has been stalled if not demolished and points to the deep split in the conservative/principlist movement between those who back the Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani, and those who oppose him:
---
Pedestrian's summary
On the committee’s tasks:
The committee consisted of me, Katouzian, Naderan, Abbaspour, Aboutorrabi and Kazem Jalali. We met with all three candidates. On the Tuesday following the election, we met with Mir Hossein Mousavi for one and half hours and Mousavi had nothing special to say.
Rafsanjani’s opinion was a council other than the Guardian Council
A day after meeting with Mousavi, we went to meet with Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani stressed: “Mousavi did not give you all his arguments, he hid them from you. Because the day after the election, Khatami, Mousavi and Seyed Hassan [Khomeini] called me and came to my office.” Rafsanjani said that Mousavi’s request was another election and he also pointed out that he had reminded them [Mousavi and Khatami] to stick to the laws. He [Rafsanjani] also had a council other than the Guardian Council in mind to investigate the allegations.
Rafsanjani said that society has changed and that students are now at the forefront as opposed to the clerics. We can’t get these 3.5 million people to go home, we should meet their demands ourselves.
Regarding Rafsanjani’s letter to the Supreme Leader:
[A few days before the election, Rafsanjani wrote a letter to the Leader in which he warned of "forces" who wanted to create chaos in the election.]
Rafsanjani said that he had first sent the letter in private but because the Leader did not respond, he went public with it.
A few weeks before the election they [Mousavi camp] had found out that they would not succeed in the election, so they had planned to hit the streets and to slowly take away the leader’s powers. They have been working on this since the 1980s to slowly form a core outside the country, and they were even successful at bringing people like Nategh Nouri [Khatami's main rival in the 1997 presidential election] to their side.
Zakani referred to the Unity Plan brought forth by Nategh Nouri and said, “They wanted to make Larijani president and it’s interesting that even Rafsanjani came out and said that the unity plan is not my plan. It was Larijani and Nategh Nouri’s.”
Overall this faction used all its capacities and used the online world to the best of its advantage. After the sixth parliament [when all the reformist MPs were banned from running again] the reformists reached the conclusion that their agendas would go nowhere, so they organized well throughout the years and we saw that even groups of 20 to 30 hooligans were organized and were able to create chaos.
The government polls showed that the election would go to a second round
All the polls, even the ones conducted by the university showed that Ahmadinejad would win. Then, on the days before the election, on June 10th and June 11th, polls by the interior ministry and ministry of intelligence and also the Supreme Security Council indicated that voting would go to a second round.
After the elections, we understood that those forces which planned to create chaos even had members in the ministries.
Rezaie said that he would follow his complaints in a lawful manner
In a meeting we had with Rafsanjani, he said that Rezaie believed 32 million votes were cast in this election and that the remaining 8 million votes were fraudulent. He said that up to 5 p.m. on election day, 17 million votes were cast and it was impossible to have another 21 million votes in 5 hours [voting ended at 10 p.m.].
Later on representatives for all four candidates had a meeting with the Leader and criticized the process in the harshest ways.
We were willing to count all the boxes
Referring to the committee’s meeting with Karroubi: Karroubi also made claims of fraud and he said that last time [in 2005], he had 3 to 4 million votes and this had decreased to 300,000. His allegation was that in some voting center in a town like Bojnourd, he’d had 200 votes [in a box] before, and he had that this time too. But in the remaining 700 boxes in that town, he’d had a total of 400 votes. We told him we’d be willing to count all 700 boxes.
This is how the counting process works: after the counting of votes in each box is complete, the results are written on five sheets and the representatives at that center sign them. One goes inside the box, two go to the interior ministry and the remaining two to the Guardian Council. Therefore, the difference between the Council’s result during counting with that of the interior ministry is not an indicator of anything and we must wait for the final result.
In the committee’s final statement, the congratulatory note to the president was crossed out
The Friday Prayer led by Rafsanjani (17 July)
Rafsanjani claimed that on the day of the Friday prayer, the population was split 50-50 and apparently Larijani was the one to give him this estimate.
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Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis
Yesterday, I noticed this entry in the blog of Pedestrian, Sidewalk Lyrics:This has got to be one of the most important pieces of – official state – news to get out after the election.
Ali Reza Zakani, a hardline, pro-government MP and a member of Parliament’s election committee, in a speech he gave at Imam Sadegh University has said, that based on two polls the day before the election by both the Interior Minister and the Ministry of Intelligence, the results would be close between Mousavi and Ahmadinejad. According to the Supreme National Security Council's reports the day before the election, the same results were predicted.
I had noted the Zakani statement in our updates but my translation was not strong to bring out the analysis offered by Pedestrian. He adds, from Zakani's speech, the evidence of Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei that votes were manipulated through "ballot-stuffing" in the last five hours of the day.
And there is this: "In the statement released by the six-member Parliamentary committee, the lines congratulating Ahmadinejad were crossed out and this was done by “a source close to the speaker of parliament” [Ali Larijani] who stated that “fraud in the election” had taken place.
Beyond the election, here's a bonus revelation which indicates why the National Unity Plan has been stalled if not demolished and points to the deep split in the conservative/principlist movement between those who back the Speaker of the Parliament, Ali Larijani, and those who oppose him:
---
Pedestrian's summary
On the committee’s tasks:
The committee consisted of me, Katouzian, Naderan, Abbaspour, Aboutorrabi and Kazem Jalali. We met with all three candidates. On the Tuesday following the election, we met with Mir Hossein Mousavi for one and half hours and Mousavi had nothing special to say.
Rafsanjani’s opinion was a council other than the Guardian Council
A day after meeting with Mousavi, we went to meet with Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani stressed: “Mousavi did not give you all his arguments, he hid them from you. Because the day after the election, Khatami, Mousavi and Seyed Hassan [Khomeini] called me and came to my office.” Rafsanjani said that Mousavi’s request was another election and he also pointed out that he had reminded them [Mousavi and Khatami] to stick to the laws. He [Rafsanjani] also had a council other than the Guardian Council in mind to investigate the allegations.
Rafsanjani said that society has changed and that students are now at the forefront as opposed to the clerics. We can’t get these 3.5 million people to go home, we should meet their demands ourselves.
Regarding Rafsanjani’s letter to the Supreme Leader:
[A few days before the election, Rafsanjani wrote a letter to the Leader in which he warned of "forces" who wanted to create chaos in the election.]
Rafsanjani said that he had first sent the letter in private but because the Leader did not respond, he went public with it.
A few weeks before the election they [Mousavi camp] had found out that they would not succeed in the election, so they had planned to hit the streets and to slowly take away the leader’s powers. They have been working on this since the 1980s to slowly form a core outside the country, and they were even successful at bringing people like Nategh Nouri [Khatami's main rival in the 1997 presidential election] to their side.
Zakani referred to the Unity Plan brought forth by Nategh Nouri and said, “They wanted to make Larijani president and it’s interesting that even Rafsanjani came out and said that the unity plan is not my plan. It was Larijani and Nategh Nouri’s.”
Overall this faction used all its capacities and used the online world to the best of its advantage. After the sixth parliament [when all the reformist MPs were banned from running again] the reformists reached the conclusion that their agendas would go nowhere, so they organized well throughout the years and we saw that even groups of 20 to 30 hooligans were organized and were able to create chaos.
The government polls showed that the election would go to a second round
All the polls, even the ones conducted by the university showed that Ahmadinejad would win. Then, on the days before the election, on June 10th and June 11th, polls by the interior ministry and ministry of intelligence and also the Supreme Security Council indicated that voting would go to a second round.
After the elections, we understood that those forces which planned to create chaos even had members in the ministries.
Rezaie said that he would follow his complaints in a lawful manner
In a meeting we had with Rafsanjani, he said that Rezaie believed 32 million votes were cast in this election and that the remaining 8 million votes were fraudulent. He said that up to 5 p.m. on election day, 17 million votes were cast and it was impossible to have another 21 million votes in 5 hours [voting ended at 10 p.m.].
Later on representatives for all four candidates had a meeting with the Leader and criticized the process in the harshest ways.
We were willing to count all the boxes
Referring to the committee’s meeting with Karroubi: Karroubi also made claims of fraud and he said that last time [in 2005], he had 3 to 4 million votes and this had decreased to 300,000. His allegation was that in some voting center in a town like Bojnourd, he’d had 200 votes [in a box] before, and he had that this time too. But in the remaining 700 boxes in that town, he’d had a total of 400 votes. We told him we’d be willing to count all 700 boxes.
This is how the counting process works: after the counting of votes in each box is complete, the results are written on five sheets and the representatives at that center sign them. One goes inside the box, two go to the interior ministry and the remaining two to the Guardian Council. Therefore, the difference between the Council’s result during counting with that of the interior ministry is not an indicator of anything and we must wait for the final result.
In the committee’s final statement, the congratulatory note to the president was crossed out
The Friday Prayer led by Rafsanjani (17 July)
Rafsanjani claimed that on the day of the Friday prayer, the population was split 50-50 and apparently Larijani was the one to give him this estimate.
Reader Comments (16)
Your headline is misleading in suggesting this is an outright admission of fraud - Zakani does seem to be inadvertently giving evidence the elections might have been manipulated, as you correctly point out, but in the end he appears to be arguing the opposite. Although his claim that internal government polls predicted a close result the day before does strongly suggest the final election results were fraudulent, he then alleges these polls to have been the work of rogue elements intending to provoke post-election unrest:
"... polls by the interior ministry and ministry of intelligence and also the Supreme Security Council indicated that voting would go to a second round.
After the elections, we understood that those forces which planned to create chaos even had members in the ministries."
Interesting to see open attacks on Larijani from the pro-govt faction as well as evidence of dissension in key security ministries.
Mukharbish,
Point taken re the headline and thank you for a useful comment,
S.
election was rigged ahmadinegad came in 3rd place mousavi had 19million votes way ahead of ahmadinegad i wish u would report the news accurately and correctly quit trying to mis-lead folks..peace
mousavi had 19 million votes, ahmadinegad only had less than 3 million votes how is that even close?
why in the hell are u reporting pro-goverment news in the first place?everyone in iran knows this election was rigged why in the hell do u think we protesting for? ahmadinegad came in 3rd place
Malihen,
http://www.sidewalklyrics.com, I believe, was the source.
I suggest before you jump to conclusions you read the ENTIRE speech given by Zakani. Clearly you do not have the skills to read the form of rhetoric used by the members of IRI. So, I suggest before you misrepresent the situation, you wait till the translation is complete. There was A LOT of double talk in that lecture and if I were you, I wouldn't throw a party yet.
By the way Megan, if I were you, I'd lose the attitude to Maliheh. You're not Iranian and Iranians are SICK of how you self-congratulatory westerners like to portray and whitewash FACTS where this regime is concerned. So why don't you back off and start getting your FACTS straight.
Rafsanjani's office has released a statement saying that Zakani is not authorized to quote him and his quotes have no credibility:
http://www.khabaronline.ir/news-26245.aspx
Thanks for clearing that up Pedestrian, I did wonder if that was just the IRI putting words into Rafs mouth for their own purposes.
Beli,
You need to cool off before you lose it. Thought I think you may have already lost it to the extent you cannot distinguish between friends and enemies. So take a dose of your own advice lose the attitude and read through the following:
1. I am an Iranian you dope.
2. Read my comments throughout this blog (though you said you had difficulty navigating this blog) and then you will see I have voiced my objection to commentators and Professor Scott Lucas, the creator of this blog, when I felt they needed to see through some of the smoke.
3. I was agreeing with Maliheh and that is why I was asking her to go to the source, http://www.sidewalklrics.com. I was hoping she goes to that blog and express her dismay with Pedestrain, the owner of SidewalkLyrics blog, who claims to be an Iranian. I do not read that blog because I do not like some of his takes on democracy movement in Iran.
4. You have more than once objected to this EA blog and Professor Lucas invited you to make suggestions. I have not seen you doing that yet. There comes the time that instead of nagging and complaining we must take steps to correct the problem. The way I see it we have two choices (a) do not read what we do not like or (b) try to make suggestions how to change things up to our liking. You have not done either.
5. If you decided to read this blog, I suggest you keep some of your fire and direct it to the real enemy of Pro Democracy Movement in Iran. He comments under the name of Samuel in this blog. Some of us have given up on him and just ignore him and bypass his comments. I call him Sa Mule. He is the mouthpiece for Iranian mafia regime.
Now after you have a chance to read through some of my old comments on EA blog, an apology should be in order for jumping the gun. But I do not expect one from you. You sound too confused and hope you work through that.
Again, please take it easy and take a deep breath. We have a long battle ahead of us with the real ruthless enemy, the mullah regime.
megan
pedestrian is female
Hi Pessimist,
Thanks for the tip. Back in June I read the section where the blogger talks about him or herself. Based on what I read in that section I concluded pedestrian was a he. I thank you for correcting me.
[...] salvage his status. Alireza Zakani, a leading parliamentary supporter of the regime, delivered a speech that effectively confirms the accusations of election fraud that Green leader Mir Hossein Mousavi [...]
[...] salvage his status. Alireza Zakani, a leading parliamentary supporter of the regime, delivered a speech that effectively confirms the accusations of election fraud that Green leader Mir Hossein Mousavi [...]
[...] of parliament” [Ali Larijani] who stated that “fraud in the election” had taken place. Full Article Iranian Protestors [...]