Travesty of Legitimacy and Election Rigging in Iran's June 2005 Presidential Election

In view of the recent debates on Open Democracy about the recent election, called Iran's Conservative Triumph, and before being tempted to contribute to the present debate in that forum, I decided to have a quick look at the Iranian Presidential Election Results as reported by the Ministry of Interior. I am just surprised to observe that a good number of contributors to Open Democracy's discussion group on the issue have chosen to not closely look at the numbers as published by the Islamic Republic of Iran's Ministry of Interior on the Total Results of the Iranian Presidential Election of June 2005. Of course, many of them might have decided to take these results as a fait accompolis or disregard them as irrelevant.

Do not some of these numbers surely show that a flawed election in Tehran might speak for the rest of the country? Do these numbers point to the fact that we have to be totally pessimistic as to why such discrepancies are not reported from other parts of the country?

I think we have to take the discrepancies in the voter turnout as an indicator that this election's flaws should be taknen far more seriously.

Update link: 13 July 2005: An interesting article about what I have posted has been published by an Iranian weblogger on Iran Scan (here).

One has to concede that with sixty-two percent turnout for the first round and fifty-nine percent turnout for the second round, the Iranian Presidential Election received an average of sixty percent turnout and the regime's legitimacy, at least in the eyes of its leaders is confirmed. I still have serious doubts as to how these results can become the basis of strong arguments/analysis about the triumph of the ultra-orthodox hardliners by a wide margin!

When one looks at the results as reported by the ministry of interior, one realises that at least in four relatively largely populated Tehran ridings as well as one riding in Kerman, the turnout was more than A HUNDRED PERCENT!

In fact, in the relatively well-off/rich/upper-middle-class North Tehran riding of Shemiranat the turnout is reported to have reached the astounding number of  839.82  Percent!   

In the working class neighbourhoods of Tehran in Ray and Rebat Karim the turnout is reported to have reached, in turn, to 216 Percent and 131 Percent!

To look at the ridings that I have mentioned you can download it:

Download snap_shot_of_elections_irregularities.doc

The full results as I accessed the website at 300 PM EST is here:

Download total_election_results.doc (Persian).

Comments

[Alborz]

i say he is better than rafsanjani. rafsanjani was going to make us another saudi arabia, an american ally give cheap ass oil, with brutal dictatorship who gets all the money.

[Alborz]

atleast this guy wont succumb to america, atleast this guy wouldnt bend over and take it like the saudis do. w/e.