Farhi on the Fraud

I applaud those who are reluctant to view Iran's presidential election as stolen. Capital capture and the tendency to see all anti-American leaders as dictators are real problems, as is the tendency to take Westernized upper middle class professionals as representative of the Muslim Middle East. However, here's Farideh Farhi on why the Iranian results don't pass the smell test:

"The lovely folks at the Interior Ministry did not even try to make it look like it was not stolen. Aside from the clear irregularities in comparison to Iran’s own past elections in the way the results were reported (e.g., lump sum reporting instead of district reporting as mentioned by Ibrahim Yazdi, not announcing the number of voided ballots and so on), there is absolutely no way the numbers add up.

"Ahmadinejad is reported to have received 24 million (even more than Khatami they keep repeating) out of total voter turnout of 39 million voter. This presumes an increase of about 8 million votes for him from the second round of the last election and the unbelievable implication that the majority of the additional 11 million voters that usually do not vote and voted in this election cast their ballot for Ahmadinejad! The argument is simply not credible to anyone who knows Iran."

(Originally posted yesterday at American Footprints)