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Tuesday, 13 May 2008

A New Paradigm And New Math In Iran

The victory of Mahmud Ahmadinejad in Iran's 24 June presidential election represents the ascendance of the country's second postrevolution generation and the return of the common man to the country's politics. However, Interior Ministry data raises questions about the election, and there were complaints of fraud and interference... more

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PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
First Round Results Second Round Results

introduction

U.S. President George W. Bush hopes that the Middle East could one day become an "arc of freedom," with democracies stretching from Morocco to Afghanistan. In June 2005, Iran – famously one of the three members of Bush's "axis of evil" – showed how its own form of democracy works, by holding elections for the presidency, the second most senior position in the country.

Around 28 million Iranians went to the polls at a time when troops of the "Great Satan" -- the United States -- were in neighboring Iraq and with the country at loggerheads with the nuclear program. At issue was whether conservatives would manage to regain control of the political agenda and renew the Islamic Revolution -- a question made all the harder in a youthful society in which over two-thirds of the population was not even born in 1979. For many, though, the key issues were neither ideological or geopolitical, but economic. An economy flush with money from the upsurge in oil prices has failed to find work for millions. How would the young and the millions of poor and unemployed vote?

A lot was at stake. And the result – a victory for Tehran's fiery and charismatic mayor, Mahmud Ahmadinejad -- have raised the stakes in the international community's efforts to oversee Iran's nuclear program.

Advances to Runoff
Mahmud Ahmadinejad
hard-line/right-wing
more

Advances to Runoff
Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani
center-right/conservative
more

	Ali Larijani hard-line/right-wing more
	Hojatoleslam Mehdi Mahdavi-Karrubi center-left/pro-reform more
	Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf hard-line/right-wing more

	Mohsen Mehralizadeh reformist more
	Mustafa Moin reformist more
	Mohsen Rezai right-wing (independent) Withdrew from race on 15 June more

Compiled by Bill Samii, Iran analyst and regional coordinator, RFE/RL OnLine.