Who will win the Iranian elections?

[techs]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...dential_election,_2009

Presidential elections will be held in Iran on June 12, 2009.[1] It will be the 10th presidential election to be held in the country. The current incumbent is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is running for re-election. The Iranian reform movement has attempted to unite behind a single candidate. Former President Mohammad Khatami had been the leading candidate until he left the race and endorsed Former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi.[2] Former Speaker of the Majlis Mehdi Karroubi, another Reformist, also intends to run.




Without the very unfortunate U.S. backed boycott of the elections in 2005, its possible Ahmacrazyguy wouldn't have won.
I'm looking for him to go down to defeat big time.
Just hope the Iranians don't elect another crazy person.

 

[Nitemare]

Ahminijan, because it will be fixed.

 

[Schadenfroh]

I predict that a conservative candidate will win.

 

[Genx87]

Is this really in question?

 

[Lemon law]

Naw to Nitemare, techs has asked a good question, if Obama is wise enough to reach out to Iranian Moderates, that by itself may swing the election away from Achmadinejad.

Maybe a disaster to the radical right in the USA and extremists in Israel, who will not have Achmadinejad to kick around anymore, but overall a win win for the Iranian people and the USA.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Ahminijan, because it will be fixed.

I don't think they were 'fixed' in the past, at least in the traditional sense.

Instead they just disqualify everyone who they don't want to win and that leaves only a few candidates for people to vote for.

Also, the last election a LOT of people sat out in protest of certain candidates being disqualified, that plan backfired so don't expect to see it happen again this time.

 

[Lemon law]

A clueless GenX87 asks, "Is this really in question?"

You bet your sweet bippe its is, maybe you prefer the Dick Cheney kick the Iranian moderates in the teeth policy that helped Achmadinejad to win last time?
Tell me again how that Dick Cheney mistake solved anything?

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: Lemon law
A clueless GenX87 asks, "Is this really in question?"

You bet your sweet bippe its is, maybe you prefer the Dick Cheney kick the Iranian moderates in the teeth policy that helped Achmadinejad to win last time?
Tell me again how that Dick Cheney mistake solved anything?

What the hell does Dick Cheney have to do with this??

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Nitemare
Ahminijan, because it will be fixed.

I don't think they were 'fixed' in the past, at least in the traditional sense.

Instead they just disqualify everyone who they don't want to win and that leaves only a few candidates for people to vote for.

Also, the last election a LOT of people sat out in protest of certain candidates being disqualified, that plan backfired so don't expect to see it happen again this time.

They have already gotten rid of facebook over there because the other candidates were using it.

Personally, I'd love to see any non-fundamentalist win. the average age in Iran is like 27 and I'm sure most of them don't agree with Ahmadinejad. With a legitimate election, a moderate would easily win.

 

[Aimster]

what difference does it make? They have no power

Ahmedenajad won because he promised change. He promised to stand up to the mullahs. He promised jobs. He promised to turn the economy around.
Did he deliver? No. All he did was yap on about Israel and the U.S. I don't think people who are looking for jobs want to hear their President yapping about the U.S and Israel all the time.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Lemon law
A clueless GenX87 asks, "Is this really in question?"

You bet your sweet bippe its is, maybe you prefer the Dick Cheney kick the Iranian moderates in the teeth policy that helped Achmadinejad to win last time?
Tell me again how that Dick Cheney mistake solved anything?

What the hell does Dick Cheney have to do with this??

Who knows, LL isnt exactly running on a fully functional brain. After all, he cant even figure out how to properly quote people.

 

[Lemon law]

A clueless Non Prof John asks, "What the hell does Dick Cheney have to do with this??"

And the answer is, the last time Iranian Moderates reached out to the USA was when the election was between Achmadinejad and Iranian moderates. And when Dick Cheney spurned the efforts of Iranian moderates, they were discredited in Iranian eyes, which helped an idiot like Achmadinejad getting elected.

If PJ wants Achmadinejad to get reelected, then he might welcome an US policy that again discredits Iranian moderates. If PJ prefers a more rational Iranian leader willing to be more US friendly, then join me in the hopes that the Cheney mistake is not repeated.

 

[Fear No Evil]

Originally posted by: Aimster
what difference does it make? They have no power

Ahmedenajad won because he promised change. He promised to stand up to the mullahs. He promised jobs. He promised to turn the economy around.
Did he deliver? No. All he did was yap on about Israel and the U.S. I don't think people who are looking for jobs want to hear their President yapping about the U.S and Israel all the time.

Sounds an aweful lot like Obama. Promise all sorts of crap, fail to deliver, and blame Bush for everything that goes wrong.

 

[Aimster]

Originally posted by: Fear No Evil

Originally posted by: Aimster
what difference does it make? They have no power

Ahmedenajad won because he promised change. He promised to stand up to the mullahs. He promised jobs. He promised to turn the economy around.
Did he deliver? No. All he did was yap on about Israel and the U.S. I don't think people who are looking for jobs want to hear their President yapping about the U.S and Israel all the time.

Sounds an aweful lot like Obama. Promise all sorts of crap, fail to deliver, and blame Bush for everything that goes wrong.

Obama is doing exactly what he promised to do. It takes time.

 

[theflyingpig]

It doesn't matter. Iran is no threat. Everyone knows this.

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: theflyingpig
It doesn't matter. Iran is no threat. Everyone knows this.

It certainly matters, because Iran's actions affect our interests. Everyone knows this.

 

[Fear No Evil]

Originally posted by: eskimospy

Originally posted by: theflyingpig
It doesn't matter. Iran is no threat. Everyone knows this.

It certainly matters, because Iran's actions affect our interests. Everyone knows this.

Haven't you learned from Bush's 8 years of CRIMINAL and TRAITOROUS activities?

 

[theflyingpig]

Originally posted by: eskimospy

Originally posted by: theflyingpig
It doesn't matter. Iran is no threat. Everyone knows this.

It certainly matters, because Iran's actions affect our interests. Everyone knows this.

Iran will do nothing.

 

[biostud]

The mullahs.....

 

[Pneumothorax]

Originally posted by: biostud
The mullahs.....

QFT
Whoever the Iranians vote for will have about the same amount of power as Secretary of State. The mullahs are basically the Executive/Legislative/Judicial all rolled into one.

 

[teclis1023]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Lemon law
A clueless GenX87 asks, "Is this really in question?"

You bet your sweet bippe its is, maybe you prefer the Dick Cheney kick the Iranian moderates in the teeth policy that helped Achmadinejad to win last time?
Tell me again how that Dick Cheney mistake solved anything?

What the hell does Dick Cheney have to do with this??

lol, PJ - it doesn't matter what you bring up (cars, FEMA, last night's meatloaf...) somehow, somewhere, Dick Cheney will come into the conversation.

Although, to be fair, there IS strong evidence that Dick Cheney messes with peoples' meat loaf.

 

[techs]

Originally posted by: Pneumothorax

Originally posted by: biostud
The mullahs.....

QFT
Whoever the Iranians vote for will have about the same amount of power as Secretary of State. The mullahs are basically the Executive/Legislative/Judicial all rolled into one.

I strongly disagree. The Mullahs do retain veto power. But the actuall running of the government and many, many of the policies are the result of the elected officials.
Everything I have read has said that the Mullahs do try and keep out of political affairs, except in certain areas.
Which is WHY they go to such great lengths to try and exclude candidates who they strongly disagree with. Because if elected the President DOES have a lot of power in Iran.
That said, I am not expecting any kind of real progressive to win.
But someone better than Ahmacrazyguy would really be an improvement.

 

[Lemon law]

While I agree that the Iranian Mullahs have far too much power in Iran, Achmadinejad has proved to be a national embarrassment for the Mullahs also.
In nearly every way, Achmadinejad has proved to be a failure. But the point to remember is that nearly every political force in Iran is still united behind
having a nuclear program for the peacetime generation of electrical power.

And at even this fairly late date, Iran remains on the cusp in terms of deciding to go the next step of going for a nuclear weapons program. OR NOT.
Right now, Iran, even with its large number of centrifuges, is still at the low grade reactor fuel enrichment stage, with the nuclear reactors basically not built yet. Once Iran has sufficient low grade Uranium to make into fuel rods, and a large number of nuclear reactors are built and come on line, there is no doubt that Iran will gain tremendous electrical power generating capacity. Two years later, after those initial fuel rods are spent, comes the big decision. Will Iran reprocess those spent fuel rods to extract out the weapons grade plutonium needed to support a nuclear weapons program. Or will Iran have those guarantees put in place to make sure the Plutonium is not extracted with the spent fuel rods transferred to the control of the USA and the international community. Making an Iranian nuclear weapons program not feasible.

That was the message that Iranian moderates put to the USA and Mr. Cheney had a significant role in spurning that message. Before that last election, Iranian moderates were pushing for more friendly US Iranian relations. When Cheney said nyet, then and only then did the Iranian mullahs commit to an underground nuclear program in a big way.

And from the Iranian point of view, they have no need for nuclear weapons if they are not threatened by the USA that is willing to have more friendly relations, but if the USA and Israel are committed to having an Iran hostile foreign policy like Cheney committed to, Iran is more likely to decide to go the nuclear weapons route. Under the UN charter, Iran has the distinct right to develop peace time nuclear energy for electrical power generation and many other nations are following suit. So far Iran is basically following IAEA rules and the US does not have enough clout to force EFFECTIVE international sanctions.

That is why this upcoming Iranian election is so important to the future of the entire mid-east.

 

[Farang]

Originally posted by: Fear No Evil

Originally posted by: Aimster
what difference does it make? They have no power

Ahmedenajad won because he promised change. He promised to stand up to the mullahs. He promised jobs. He promised to turn the economy around.
Did he deliver? No. All he did was yap on about Israel and the U.S. I don't think people who are looking for jobs want to hear their President yapping about the U.S and Israel all the time.

Sounds an aweful lot like Obama. Promise all sorts of crap, fail to deliver, and blame Bush for everything that goes wrong.

lol.. you already have the story all written out for yourself don't you. that's cute.

 

[piasabird]

Since in Iran the President is just a mouthpiece with no authority, it does not realy matter. Who ever wins will be another nut job.