NCRI – A tape recording of Faezeh Rafsanjani, the daughter of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has been circulating on several Iranian websites, in which she talks about the widespread fraud committed by the mullahs’ Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to reinstate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the regime’s sham presidential elections. She also addressed the regime’s internal feuds and rifts. Below are excerpts of a translated transcript:
Question: Ahmadinejad says that candidates do not have any complaints [about the results]…
Faezeh Rafsanjani: Even the Guardian Council announced that candidates have filed complaints.
Question: No, I mean Mohsen Rezai [one of the candidates] and the representatives of the candidates who were present at the polls [did not file complaints].
Faezeh Rafsanjani: … The problem is that these are all outside observers. They did not name their executive delegations for counting of the votes or compilation of the votes by June 8. The mechanisms prescribed by law for observers were not in place.
Secondly they did not issue cards for most observers. They told them to receive their cards at the polls. Then, they sent everyone around the city or claimed that the names of these people are on the ballot boxes. There was a mess created for people to finally find out where they have to go.
Then the SMS network was disrupted. These observers had made their operations dependent on the SMS messaging system. Each of them had a code and that is how they planned to communicate with each other. So, there was no communication among the observers.
The ballot boxes are all full of ballots for Ahmadinejad. That means if they go and recount the votes, nobody can find anything different because they filled the ballot boxes themselves and their manufactured votes are complete.
The other issue concerns the ballots. Many of the provinces had gone through all the ballots by noon. Moreover, they did not bring more ballots except for a couple of places. Then the TV announced at 10 PM that even the last person would be able to vote. But at 10 PM all the polls were actually closed and there were some people who could not vote.
The foundation of the elections is manipulation. … There were 57 million ballots printed, which is 17 million more than the number of eligible voters. What happened to all these ballots? They filled them and cast them into the boxes. The ballot boxes are all complete, corresponding to the statistics that they have announced. These people are certainly not seeking to recount the votes. The poor observers have no reports to give. After the votes they were not given forms to sign on the basis of which …
Question: You mean fraud was committed to such an extent?
Faezeh Rafsanjani: Khamenei wants Ahmadinejad [to be president]. Why wouldn't he? He has been the leader during this period and he wants Ahmadinejad. This is what it depends on…
Question: No, no, this is not the issue at all. Didn't the leader (Khamenei) not say in the last round that no one could replace Rafsanjani? So what has happened since then? What is the conflict about?
Faezeh Rafsanjani: True, the leader said that. But you have to consider the dates. When the leader was president, his prime minister, Moussavi, was imposed on them. When my father became president he was also not the leader’s [favored] president. When Khatami became president, again he was not the leader’s president.
Second, those who support the leader are from the Bassij, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Ansar-e Hezbollah and such. Their interests lie with Ahmadinejad's actions. Therefore, the leader has to safeguard the interests of the Bassijis. Otherwise, they would not keep him in that position. In reality, the leader is doing this out of self-interest.
… We have a problem in our history, we create heroes and destroy idols. We elevate someone's status so much and then throw him down and kill him. … If we had a system, or if we had stability, democracy would have found a real meaning and would not have turned out this way.
Faezeh Rafsanjani: … In reality, I see the main reason for the existence of these dictatorial acts to be Khatami, because on 18 Tir [July 9, 1999], he guided everyone towards radicalism and lifted the mask off everyone's face and actually exposed the reformists. On that day, Mr. Khamenei thought that if he does not act quickly then his fate would be akin to the Shah’s. This is where it all began. You saw that in the next election the reformists did not come to power. And even now that they had a chance to obtain power the situation turned out as it did. And we saw what happened to my father. This strike [protest] has to continue. In my view, if the movement continues then they would realize that the people are not ready to back down.
Question: Ms. Rafsanjani, your father was president for eight years and Mr. Khatami was president for another eight years. Are you saying that we did not have enough forces in the Interior Ministry to prevent such fraud?
Faezeh Rafsanjani: It is not in the hands of the Interior Ministry. … But, [when Khatami was president] he was so incompetent that he could not even manage an election, and there was so much fraud committed that Mr. Rafsanjani did not get any votes. There was so much fraud committed and in the end Mr. Khatami claimed that the election was healthy because he himself managed it. So it was written in his name.
Question: Khatami committed a lot of treachery. Now what measures are you going to take? What can be done?
Faezeh Rafsanjani: Clashes should be avoided in favor of peaceful protests. This will in the end have an impact on foreign relations. Foreign leaders have not congratulated Ahmadinejad [on his victory]. … So we will see what happens if these movements were to continue.
Question: They smeared your image …
Faezeh Rafsanjani: Yes that is how it is unfortunately. We reformers backtracked wherever there was an opportunity. On 2 Khordad [May 23, 1997, when Khatami became president], we gained so much victory, but a lot of divisions began to appear. Unfortunately, that is how it is. It was the same situation in the last [presidential election]. If all those five reformist candidates had dropped out in favor of Rafsanjani, he would have been the winner. We destroyed a lot of opportunities. This time the people came to the scene, but …
Question: If Khatami had run?
Faezeh Rafsanjani: No, Khatami has a lot of problems. He could not do anything. What did he do in the last four years?
Question: Did you not have a better person [than Moussavi]?
Faezeh Rafsanjani: Hassan Rohani or Larijani could run. Since they could gain some popularity perhaps these circumstances could never have taken place. But, there were better people than Ahmadinejad and they did not run.
Question: What is your plan?
Faezeh Rafsanjani: We have filed a complaint. We asked [the state-run] TV and radio to give some answers but they refused. … Then we complained and Mr. Rafsanjani released a statement. They do not have any documents and evidence and we are completely certain of that.
Question: What did Mr. Rafsanjani tell Ahmadinejad at the Imam shrine?
Faezeh Rafsanjani: He said reconsider your statements about myself and my kids and others or I will follow up with [the regime’s judiciary chief] Shahroudi, and we will not let go of this issue.