Everyone's a Winner in Iran!

The "reformist" candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi (scare quotes are necessary, considering Mousavi's previous demands that Salman Rushdie be murdered, among other illiberal public utterances, and his previous identification by The Washington Post as a "hardliner") is claiming a landslide victory in Iran, though has complained of widespread "irregularities" in vote tallying. From AFP:

Reformist former premier Mir Hossein Mousavi claims he has won a landslide victory in Iran's presidential election. "In line with the information we have received, I am the winner of this election by a substantial margin," Mr Mousavi told a news conference in Tehran.

Only minutes earlier, close Mousavi aide Ali Akbar Mohatshemi-Pour said his candidate had won 65 per cent of the vote.

Not so fast, says Lil' A-Jad:

Iranian state news agency IRNA announced that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won reelection on Friday.

"Doctor Ahmadinejad, by getting a majority of the votes, has become the definite winner of the 10th presidential election," IRNA said.

BBC News has the latest developments.

Comments

[Warty]

But who is the winrar?

[Episiarch]

Warty, please tell me you didn't make a file archiver/data compression joke. Really.

[EJM]

...Lil' A-Jad...

I guess I'm old school, but I still think it's more appropriate to spell it "Li'l" (Kim, et al., notwithstanding), as the apostrophe is supposed to fill the place of the "t" sound.

BTW, the full Google News story cluster is here.

[R C Dean]

Not so fast, says Lil' A-Jad:

I swear, at first I thought that said "Li'l Jihad".

[Warty]

Oh, I went there, Epi.

[TallDave]

Wow, those are some wildy divergent results. They must be using Venezuelan voting machine technology from Attackjihad's buddy Chavez.

In Iranian fashion, I predict beards will get longer and hemlines will recieve more beatings from secret police.

[wingnutx]

Winrar is lossless, unlike Mir Hossein Mousavi.

[comatus]

On schedule and according to plan, citizens of the US can no longer laugh at obviously phony "close elections" in the rest of the world.

[Episiarch]

Winrar is lossless, unlike Mir Hossein Mousavi.

It also has redundancy, much like having multiple winrar jokes in an Iran thread.

[wingnutx]

Not as redundant as if the Israelis RAID their nuclear production plants.

[Mir Hossain Mousavi]

Anyone know Persian for "hanging chad"?

[J sub D]

I have recurring dreams of people's uprisings in both Iran and Saudi Arabia that result in numerous heads of clerics and the ruling class ending up displayed on spikes.

This is not a nightmare. This is what my subconcious really desires to see happen.

[Long ears]

Wait, they just now found some extra ballots in King County. This thing ain't over yet....

[Freewheelin\' Franklin]

Anyone know Persian for "hanging chad"?

Yeah - Ayatollah Khomeini

[wingnutx]

I'm afraid that a popular uprising in SA would have a very different outcome than one in Iran.

[Warty]

Not as redundant as if the Israelis RAID their nuclear production plants.

We have found our winrar.

[KenB]

Jimmy Carter has pronounced the election fundamentally fair and consistent with international norms. 🙂

PS: As to the latter point, maybe he's right.

[skaiser]

I predict Jimmy Carter will certify both results.

[Tulpa]

Now we know the answer to the trivia question, "What do Iranian elections have in common with the Special Olympics?"

[Mir Hosein Mousavi]

"Anyone know Persian for "hanging chad"?

Yeah - Ayatollah Khomeini"

Foolish infidel. Thats Persian for "George Bush".

[B]

Shame joe is gone. Now we have no one to tell us this election proves Iran is a democracy, ala Venezuala.

[TallDave]

I have recurring dreams of people's uprisings in both Iran and Saudi Arabia that result in numerous heads of clerics and the ruling class ending up displayed on spikes.

Unfortunately, I bet lots of people said that about the Shah in 1979 too.

Never discount the possibility that even worse/crazier people could take over.

[wlpeak]

I believe they only 'stone' Chads in Iran. Well him and Bruce. Apparently Iranians are afraid of the implications of anything that is well hung.

[?.?pm j+kio\'+nmjip]

fuck yeahg

[zoltan]

I have recurring dreams of people's uprisings in both Iran and Saudi Arabia that result in numerous heads of clerics and the ruling class ending up displayed on spikes.

This is not a nightmare. This is what my subconcious really desires to see happen.

As long as the government isn't confiscating money and giving it to anyone in the Middle East in order for that to happen, I hope so too.

[Stalin]

The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.

[Joe Strummer]

Moynihan is such a tool. He's a reformist compared to... In the same way that Obama is by no means perfect, but he's a reformist compared to hardliners like Bush.

[Elemenope]

Unfortunately, I bet lots of people said that about the Shah in 1979 too.

Never discount the possibility that even worse/crazier people could take over.

Yeah, but they are really scraping the bottom of that barrel. I suppose they could go Kim Jong-Il crazy, but beyond that...

[BakedPenguin]

In the same way that Obama is by no means perfect, but he's a reformist compared to hardliners like Bush.

In what way is Obama a "reformer"? What the fuck is he "reforming"? The distance between their actual policies (versus Obama's bullshit oratory), can be measured in millimeters.

[underzog]

Reason magazine and the Rhoemites consider themselves the winner in Iran's election because the re elected Achmadinijad will nuke Israel and kill all of those pesky 5.5 to 6 million Jews.

Why I don't trust the Libertarians (excerpt from the link)

"I've yet to meet a single libertarian that is willing to take Israel's side in the Middle East, and many of them are actually anti-semitic. Just look at the numbers of neo-Nazis that voted for Ron Paul in the last American election."

You won't even need your heroin and cocaine to get happy if Achmadinijad drops his nuke bombs on Israel. You Rhoemites are that evil.

"There's no need to fear. Underzog is here."

[Mike]

Hard as this is to believe, this fiasco is probably the best possible result. If Mousavi (who, as Moynihan points out, is pretty thuggish, too) had won a fair election, people would have said, "See. Iran is a normal country moving towards freedom. Stop being so concened about it." With Ahmadinejad in charge, there are no excuses, and the fact that he probably stole the election makes it even more obvious.

Now there will be more room for nations to be tough with the Iranian government, and less reason for the Iranian people to support it.

[ace]

some numerical evidence of foul play:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/06/the-results-as-they-came-in.html

[Warty]

Did underzog suddenly get dumber than Lonewacko?

[Elemenope]

Did underzog suddenly get dumber than Lonewacko?

What do you mean, "suddenly"?

[EJM]

Here's the lede from the latest GlobalPost report on the elections ("As night falls, Tehran still ablaze")...

The Iranian capital was still in the grip of rioting as darkness fell Saturday night. Vali Asr Avenue, the city's most historic thoroughfare which traverses the city, has not seen anything like it since the 1979 Iranian Revolution[.]

Authorities discontinued cellphone communications, blocked several websites and moved swiftly to squash pockets of resistance.

Rioters continued battling riot police on motorcycles and bassiji militias, as residents watching the violence from balconies and rooftops shouted "death to the dictator."

[zoltan]

Just look at the numbers of neo-Nazis that voted for Ron Paul in the last American election.

[Citation needed]

[Art-P.O.G.]

Has anybody seen underzog and Lefiti in the same room at the same time?