Monday, July 27, 2009

Iranian Presidential Election

The current state of chaos in Iran is the result of the conflicting political viewpoints. The current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is considered to be a very hardcore conservative candidate while others like Mir Hossein Mousavi are considered pro-reformists. Ahmadinejad has very strong believes in a Palestinian state replacing Israel and very anti-Western ideas that have angered many individuals globally since his election in 2005. He also supports Iran’s nuclear power program, which has gained much support in the country, but concerns other countries like the U.S. and UK. Mir Hossein Mousavi the pro-reformist candidate if heavily favored by the youth of Iran because of several political ideals; Mousavi insists that the Iranian people are entitled to more individual freedom from the government, social justice and freedom of expression, less discrimination against women, and also supports anti-government corruption policies (Council on Foreign Relations).The interesting intersection that is made in this sort of election is that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Supreme Leader of Iran, and the current president are friendly allies and share very similar political and religious believes. It is believed that the recent election was rigged so that conservative power can remain in the top branches of government in Iran (CNN).

What has caused for more turmoil in the country is historically Iran has been a nation with very strong religious governmental ties. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is one of the most powerful and influential members of the government that overseas the military, appoints military and judicial members, supervises the constitution, and sets general state policy. The Supreme Leader of Iran has more political power than the President(Council on Foreign Relations). So, with this type of dynamic in the country of Iran, having a very strong religiously based government, the debates of the current presidential election have caused a breakdown in the structure of the current Iranian government. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, has sided with the re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and believes that the current election was done fairly. On the other hand, other clerical members do not believe that the election was done fairly and support the pro-reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. Some members of the cleric have gone as far as to insult the Council of Guardians, a twelve member clerical group that is in charge of reviewing legislation and electing candidates, of tampering with the voting ballots so that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be elected president for another term (BBC).

All of this turmoil in what is best for the future of Iran; whether to remain a religiously conservative based government or adopt more Westernized views of secularism and modernization has resulted in chaos. Thousands of protestors have moved to the streets insisting that the election was fixed and are unpleased with the current state of government in Iran. The death toll of civilians is rising each day that the protests continue, despite the nationwide ban of protesting by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. More recent reports suggest that the Iranian government is deceiving the public about the actual death count of protestors and other reports suggest that police are brutally harming peaceful protestors. All the while, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has announced that the Iranian government is not the result of the public’s oppression and recent national uprise, but Western influence is to blame for the state of unrest (New York Times).

1 comment:

  1. Good overview and summary of the basic dispute between the hardline conservatives and the reformists. It's hard to get below the surface here and get a sense of how much popular support there is for either side, but anything you can find on that topic would be interesting.

    Obviously the U.S. would like the reformers to win, and you have to think they will do whatever they can to influence the outcome. But what can the U.S. do about this?

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