Green
posted by Gavin | 10:29 PM
As I write this, it is another morning in Tehran. Yesterday saw the March of Silence, as an estimated 2 million people filled the largest avenue of the city during a 3 hour silent protest. The organizers orchestrated it to debunk the government stance that the protesters are merely a bunch of thugs. It was an impressive demonstration.
It is interesting to see what is happening in Iran. Some have drawn parallels to the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon in 2005, which was also a greatly inspiring moment and a large step towards democracy. Lebanon has had its fair share of problems since then, although one might argue much of that may be instigated from a theocratic republic to their east.
The world watches as the will of a vibrant people comes into conflict with their government over what, from all appearances, was a fraudulent election. I wish them the best, and I hope our administration (understandingly surprised by this, as everyone is) will support the popular push for a more open democracy. It's in everyone's best interests, even if it places much at risk. I applaud the State department for asking Twitter to maintain their servers instead of taking them down for planned upgrades. Let's do more for these people.
In 1776, our founding fathers didn't stand alone either.
Labels: current events
4 Comments:
For the record, I'm not in Tehran. In case that was confusing. :)
Founding parents.
Do you think it's possible the election was really rigged to the tune of 30%? That seems very difficult to do.
Founding parents indeed.
The way America does elections, with monitors and recount challenges, etc., it is difficult to rig an election. (Although some have pointed out electronic voting increases the risk of fraud, and they're probably right.)
The way some other countries do it, it's not hard at all to rig.
In one-party countries, which I believe Iran with its theocratic Guardian Council and Supreme Leader essentially is, it isn't hard. When one group controls the candidates, the ballots, the press, and the ballot counting... where are the checks and balances to prevent fraud?
I have to agree on the ease of election rigging in this case. First, what monitors there were in a few polling locations weren't allowed to see the polling boxes before voting began (e.g. could have been prestuffed since they used paper ballots). Second, they announced the final vote count within minutes/hours after polling. If someone can explain how millions of handwritten paper ballots can be actually counted in that time, I'm all ears.
As is, I personally suspect the vote could have gone either way if votes were actually tallied and some weren't ready to take that chance. But a lopsided result, clearly wasn't believed by many both inside out outside of the country.
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