Or so the Iranian state news agency says.
Iran’s state news agency reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election Friday, but his main reformist challenger also confidently claimed victory at a news conference moments earlier.
The rival claims came even before the close of polls, which authorities permitted to stay open an extra six hours, until midnight, to allow long lines of voters to cast ballots. Official results were not expected until Saturday.
The fix, she is in. Don’t expect the “reformist” candidate to take away the win. In a close race, the man the Mad Mullahs want gets the job.
I’m wondering how much this so-called competition was staged. Aside from the maneuvering for power between one mullah and another, there’s no real difference between the candidates. All of them were thoroughly vetted by the mullahs. No one gets to run that Khameini didn’t approve. So maybe he wanted Mad Mahmoud to sweat a little.
I was reading something somewhere by someone saying that this would lead to a president-for-life thing with Ahmadinejad. Here’s a clue for that person: Iran is ruled by someone whose title is Supreme Leader, and who doesn’t run for re-election once he’s fought his way to that position. Anyone who calls Iran any kind of democracy is a dreamer or a liar. When every candidate is vetted by the mullahs, there is no true democracy. Here in America, all you need is the requisite number of signatures on the petition, the right age and residency requirements, and you can run for anything. No one can disapprove your candidacy. That is democracy. Not Iran.