‘We have finally learned to fight’
25
Jun/090
Jun/090
Iran’s regime took the election, but it also set the stage for radical upheaval
Late Sunday night and early Monday morning, some 300 police and members of the paramilitary Basij militia stormed the university’s dormitory, where students had protested against what millions of Iranians, along with most independent analysts, believe was a stolen election. Hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway winner, with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, describing his victory as a “divine assessment.”
But the outcome was announced before many of the votes could have been counted. And the declared results bore little resemblance to the reality on the ground, with Ahmadinejad supposedly winning in the regional and ethnic strongholds of his opponents. While one poll taken three weeks before the election suggested Ahmadinejad was leading, polls closer to the election date indicated that reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi had surged ahead.
Late Sunday night and early Monday morning, some 300 police and members of the paramilitary Basij militia stormed the university’s dormitory, where students had protested against what millions of Iranians, along with most independent analysts, believe was a stolen election. Hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the runaway winner, with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, describing his victory as a “divine assessment.”
But the outcome was announced before many of the votes could have been counted. And the declared results bore little resemblance to the reality on the ground, with Ahmadinejad supposedly winning in the regional and ethnic strongholds of his opponents. While one poll taken three weeks before the election suggested Ahmadinejad was leading, polls closer to the election date indicated that reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi had surged ahead.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/06/24/‘we-have-finally-learned-to-fight’/
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