Iran will never return to the past
On July 4, Mr. Moussavi’s “Committee for Safeguarding Votes” released a report in which it talked in detail about new instances of astronomic fraud committed in the course of the Iranian regime’s presidential election. The report correctly referred to it as an “organized plot to commit fraud.” Among the instances of fraud mentioned in the report are the following:
1. The representative of the mullahs’ Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent a letter to the regime’s armed forces conveying Khamenei’s directive to them, and adding, “The unambiguous view of His Excellency, Ayatollah Khamenei, is the re-election of the esteemed president, Dr. Ahmadinejad. It is obligatory for the respected commanders of the IRGC ground forces to enact the Supreme Leader’s repeated guidelines and instruct the personnel in their command accordingly, particularly the brothers serving mandatory terms.”
2. Governor generals, Governors, and District Governors had been very selectively appointed, to the extent that prior to the election, 25 governors with military backgrounds were in place.
3. In total, around 22 to 32 million extra ballots were provided to election supervisors. In the first round, despite the fact that the total number of eligible voters in the country was announced to be 45.2 million, about 59.6 million ballots with serial numbers were printed. Then, a day before the vote, in accordance with the directive of Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, millions of new ballots were printed at the Central Bank, which lacked serial numbers. In addition to this, “50 thousand extra stamps coupled with tens of millions of extra ballots, reinforces the suspicion that millions of fraudulent ballots were dropped in ballots boxes.”
4. About 9.7 million people in cities and villages each received 80,000 Tomans (roughly $80) as dividends of “Shares of Justice” in order to sell their votes. Other instances:
• Cash payments, and handing out of gold coins, and coupons, worth roughly $60 to $80.
• Distribution of free potatoes in various parts of the country, as well as handing out of rice, flour, and cooking oil in poor neighborhoods.
• Handing out of money by governorships and the Aid Committee, especially in villages.
5. Filling the hierarchy of political and election posts in the Ministry of Interior with managers having the same viewpoint, and purging all of the experienced managers; carrying out the same policy when filling posts in executive committees and even putting in place employees at polling stations, in order to prevent “strangers” from coming into the fold; at the same time, all of the employees and experts at the Interior Ministry’s elections office were suddenly changed, along with officials at the vote counting website at the Interior Ministry.
6. Setting up unified and at the same time closed organizational arrangements within the Interior Ministry, Election headquarters, and executive committees; carrying out a unified and silo-oriented arrangement within the ranks of the Interior Ministry, starting from the Elections headquarters and continuing down to the lowest levels, such that on Election Day, only Mr. Mahsouli (Interior Minister), Daneshjou (head of Elections headquarters), and another individual were allowed to be at the Vote Compilation Room at the Elections headquarters, while representatives of other candidates could not even get close to that room.
7. Extensive involvement of the IRGC, the State Security Force (SSF), and representatives of the Supreme Leader from various organs, including Saeedi, Head of the Supreme Leader’s Office at the IRGC, and his deputy, Zolnour.
8. A widespread organized force funded by the IRGC with tens of thousands of Bassij militias in plain-clothes paid to attend Ahmadinejad’s campaign meetings; forcing people to vote for Ahmadinejad through intimidation on Election Day at polling stations. Bassij members were widely present at polling stations to fill out ballots.
9. Buying and selling birth certificates and votes; Casting a ballot using forged birth certificates or certificates belonging to others; handing out multiple ballots to one individual; avoiding to stamp birth certificates; casting a ballot without showing a birth certificate; allowing people under 18 years of age to vote; filling ballot boxes before locking and stamping them “with the required and pre-determined ballots”; changing the location and number of the boxes; there were essentially no supervision on one third of the ballot boxes, i.e. 14,000 mobile ballot boxes, and this was indicative of “the resolve to carry out extensive fraud.”
10. In hundreds of voting booths, the numbers of voters were reported to be 95% to 140% of the number of eligible voters. Divided statistics for towns in 24 provinces (released on June 15 on the official Interior Ministry website) were contradictory to divided statistics for ballots boxes (released on June 23 also on the official Interior Ministry website). Voter turnout in 60 towns and 192 districts was reported as high as 100% to 211% of eligible voters. In 125 towns, more than 95% of eligible voters cast ballots. In 307 ballot boxes, Ahmadinejad received 99% of the votes, and in 2233 boxes, his share of the vote was higher than 95%, which “indicated the casting of uniform ballots with utter incompetence.”
Threatening Moussavi
On July 4, 2009, the state-run daily Kayhan, affiliated with the regime’s Supreme Leader, accused Moussavi of committing a “crime,” carrying out “a foreign-dictated assignment” and playing the role of the “fifth column” of the enemy, and called on him to either “repent” or “ask for forgiveness,” or else he would be left to accept “definitive punishment for the killing of innocent human beings, staging of disorder and chaos, encouraging hooligans and thugs to harm people’s lives and cause damage to their property, clearly cooperating with foreigners, and playing the role of America’s fifth column.”
The illegitimate clerical regime has been caught in a vicious circle which signals its disgraceful end. Khamenei should at least have remembered that Moussavi had joined forces with him for nearly a decade by propagating the same accusations against the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) and the Iranian Resistance. But, the Iranian Resistance is not seeking now to accuse Mr. Moussavi. On the contrary, at a time when Khamenei is threatening Mr. Moussavi for his above-mentioned revelations, the Iranian Resistance’s principles dictate the following:
A) Condemning any sort of attack against Moussavi, his family, and his friends even within the context of this regime. Also, issuing a warning to the regime about his trial or punishment, stressing that responsibility for any kind of abuse, arrest, or terrorist act would fall on Khamenei personally.
B) Warning about Mr. Moussavi’s safety and security, and requesting from the UN Secretary General and the Security Council to immediately send an international delegation to Tehran in this regard, and force the regime to annul the illegitimate election and accept a free election under UN supervision and in accordance with the Iranian people’s sovereignty.
C) Calling on the UN, the International Fact Finding Committee, jurists, international human rights organizations, and all governments that refused to recognize the results of Iran’s sham election, to refer the case of this election and the suppression of Iranians and massacre of innocent people to the UN Security Council.
Undoubtedly, reviewing the case of the Iranian election at the Security Council serves global peace, because it would also serve to prevent the religious fascism from obtaining nuclear weapons, and from exporting terrorism and meddling in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine.
Analysis – Iranian uprising: Beginning of the end (other parts)
