Goudarzi, Ghaziyan and Abdi are the only Iranians INSIDE Iran who specialize in conducting polls and all three of them have cast doubt on Ballen and Dohrety’s findings. (the first two weren’t even associated with any candidate, they are university professors). If you’re mindset is that of polls done in the U.S., than I also suggest you take more time to go through reports about IRAN.

Kayhan’s article wasn’t based on any POLL. They specifically said it was “their prediction” without giving reference to anything at all. Fatemeh Rahbar (PM), Farsnews, and Ahmadinejad’s deputy declared that he would win 24 MILLION VOTES weeks before the election … just yesterday, Rezai’s website posted the scanned newspaper pages where they had made these statements.

If you’d like to go on thinking that A.N. won the election, that’s fine. But for an Iranian, there have surfaced too many facts and too many questions and too many ambiguities to go on thinking that way.

For example all US papers a week before the presedential election predicted an Obama win , according to your thesis that would mean they were participating in a massive fraud , which is clearly absurd.

But that doesn’t take the responsibility for helping these murderating pigs off the shoulders of people who should have known better from the start, but CERTAINLY should know better after all the work that has gone into getting them the facts.

Okay. I’m going to go soak my head now.

I’m really getting very angry about this.

Dress codes and morality police don’t sound too bad to me, and I’m not even muslim.

Thank you for this post.

I don’t know about you, but it has become increasingly clear to me that this “Green Revolution” or whatever you call it is the Iranian incarnation of groups such as the exiled Cuban elites in Florida and the opposition in Venezuela, and, as of today, the Honduran elites who pulled off the coup against their president. That is to say, they are educated, relatively wealthy, resentful of being pushed around by the unwashed masses, and so determined in their self-righteousness, inflated senses of self-righteousness, that they will stoop even to helping American Fascists get their way to gain back their “freedom” — which better translates as their “privilege”. I say this because I have noted their changing tactics with each new charge against them, the instantaneous response to people hollering about their protest signs being in English: poof, gone. People pointing out that the results had all been published, viable explanation for the precincts with more votes than registered voters, the partial recount: all rebutted with more fantastical allegations. The rush to get Neda’s face on posters all over the world, when it has been shown that she wasn’t at a demonstration, and the doctor who was supposedly helping her is giving out differing stories of the incident, and the Pahlavi pig prince claiming her as his daughter, and not ONE of them griping about the Pahlavi flags being flown in support protests all over the world, and telling people all over the world to set their tweets from Iran…. On and on.

They do not give a fuck how this harms Iran, paves the superhighway for Halliburton, is an insult to what little claim to democracy they have, no, they want to wear what they want to wear, and out chic each other openly, and not let their economy be ruined by religious nuts who insist on helping the poor.

How did they know this? If that link is your “source” for news on this election, I strongly suggest you start looking elsewhere.

For one thing, ALL THREE REMAINING CANDIDATES, Karoubi, Mousavi and even the hardliner Rezaie have DECLARED THEIR STRONG BELIEF THAT THIS ELECTION WAS FRAUDULENT. Whereas both progressives and the right wing media have reinterpreted this as Mousavi’s fight alone.

I am NO Mousavi supporter, but as an Iranian, after reading and seeing all the non-Mousavi related EVIDENCE THAT THIS ELECTION WAS EXTREMELY FRAUDULENT (If not stolen, I’m not claiming we know the results) I can say that progressive voices have been as OUT OF TOUCH with “Iran” as those on the right. And that what makes this all the more frustrating and quite sad, is that we Iranians have indeed been sabotaged by both the right and the left … each reinterpreting this story to the advantage of their own agendas without understanding what is REALLY HAPPENING ON THE GROUND.

http://www.counterpunch.org/amin06222009.html

The results were also in line with the few polls that were conducted.

There seems to have been a slight confusion between announcement of results and the formal ratification timeline.

I have heard that beyond north Tehran, Ahmadinejad’s plain speaking in the last weeks – specifically accusing Rafsanjani of corruption – boosted his support. But I wasn’t in Iran, and you may be right.

I am not saying for a moment that we shouldn’t talk about Iran. I am calling for real debate, and standing against a simplistic reduction, which is what the western media does.

I do not associate the present protests with counter-revolution. Where do I do that? I do the opposite. I say that the upset Iranians I met all preferred the evolution of the present system to counter-revolution.

And do you really think I’m an apologist for Ahmadinejad and Khamenei? I think their unintelligent leadership is endangering Iran. I wouldn’t have voted for Ahmadinejad. I’m just asking the west to be less hypocritical, and the media to do its job.