I don't think anyone's posted this yet but it's great news to me. Ahmadinejad lost in the Iran elections. I don't know much about who won but I hope that person isn't as bad as Ahmadinejad but in some ways it does not matter too much since the position he holds is one that has very little power compared to others in Iran.

Iran vote "decisive defeat" for president: reformers - Yahoo! News

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's biggest reformist party said on Monday President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had suffered a "decisive defeat" in nationwide elections last week due to his government's "authoritarian and inefficient methods."

The government's spokesman countered that by saying the government had no favored candidates in Friday's twin votes for local councils and a powerful clerical body known as the Assembly of Experts and was happy to work with the winners.

Political analysts said the elections, the first since Ahmadinejad's stunning 2005 presidential win, would have no immediate impact on policy in the Islamic state where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word on all matters.

But a poor showing for allies of the anti-Western president could give a stronger voice to more moderate voices in decision-making in future.

Vote counting in several major electoral battlegrounds continued for a third day on Monday, prompting government critics to express fears the delay could indicate possible tampering.

The results that have been announced suggest that moderate conservative and reformist candidates had, on the whole, fared better than close allies of Ahmadinejad although no one group could claim outright victory.

"The initial results of elections throughout the country indicate that Mr. Ahmadinejad's list has experienced a decisive defeat nationwide," the pro-reform Islamic Iran Participation Front said in a statement.

"These results were tantamount to a big 'no' to the government's authoritarian and inefficient methods," it said.

DISAPPOINTMENTS

Government spokesman Gholamhossein Elham preferred to highlight the turnout of about 60 percent, well above levels for equivalent elections in recent years.

"The government does not work in the interest of any particular political group," he told a weekly news conference. "It is not important for us who is the winner in the elections."

Early vote tallies for the crucial Tehran City Council race gave Ahmadinejad supporters up to four of the 15 seats. Among those poised to be elected was a sister of the president.

The rest of the council seats were shared among moderate conservative backers of Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and reformists, including at least three former cabinet ministers.

Reformists said the Tehran results reflected those in other parts of the country where Ahmadinejad allies had failed to win decisive control of other councils. Some reformists leaders said they feared backers of Ahmadinejad and Qalibaf could form an alliance to squeeze out reformists from power in Tehran.

There were also disappointments for Ahmadinejad allies in the vote for the Assembly of Experts, an 86-member body which elects, supervises and can even dismiss the supreme leader.

Topping the count so far in Tehran was former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a staunch critic of the president who lost to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential vote.

Firebrand cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, a vocal backer of Ahmadinejad trailed in sixth place in the Tehran race but with enough votes to retain his assembly seat. Several other clerics allied to the president and Mesbah-Yazdi failed to win seats.

If I had to guess the winner probably will not be much different. It is the religious leaders who have most of the power anyway and they are never going to get better. I'm not saying we can't hope for better but I am saying we shouldn't expect too much.

__________________
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

a little more meat for the thread....my question is: how long will this last, as in the previous history of the clerics deleting opponents etc..........so they cannot be voted for......or, is their a power struggle going on in the higher realms of the Iranian political machinery...?



Ahmadinejad Opponents Leading Elections


Email this Story

Dec 18, 8:31 AM (ET)

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Opponents of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took an early lead in key races in Iran's local elections, according to partial results announced Monday, with moderate conservatives winning control of councils across Iran.

If the final results hold - especially in the bellwether capital, Tehran - it will be an embarrassment to Ahmadinejad, whose anti-Israeli rhetoric and unyielding position on Iran's nuclear program have provoked condemnation in the West and moves toward sanctions at the U.N. Security Council.

A freelance Iranian journalist of reformist sympathies, Iraj Jamshidi, described the vote as "a blow to Ahmadinejad," who was elected in June 2005.

"After a year, Iranians have seen the consequences of the extremist policies employed by Ahmadinejad. Now, they have said a big 'no' to him," said Jamshidi.

My Way News - Ahmadinejad Opponents Leading Elections


(AP) Iranian women fill in their ballot during city council and Expert Assembly elections, at a polling...
Full Image


The incomplete results announced by the Interior Ministry suggested that the winners were mostly moderate conservatives opposed to the hardline president, rather than reformists. Final results

In the key race for Tehran, candidates supporting Mayor Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, a moderate conservative opposed to the president, had taken the lead.

The Interior Ministry said only about 500,000 votes had been counted so far in Tehran, about 20 percent of the expected turnout. Final results, however, were released from all municipal districts outside the capital.

In the southern historical city of Shiraz, as well as in the provincial capitals of Rasht, northern Iran, and Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, not one pro-Ahmadinejad candidate won a seat on the city council.

The partial results also indicated, separately, that reformers might be making a partial comeback, after having been suppressed in the parliamentary elections of 2004 when many of their best candidates were barred from running.


(AP) Iranian woman casts her ballot as an official woman adjusts voter's IDs during city council and...
Full Image


In the elections for the Assembly of Experts, a conservative body of 86 senior clerics that monitors Iran's supreme leader and chooses his successor, opponents of the president also appeared to have done well.

Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who lost to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential election runoff, won a Tehran seat on the Assembly of Experts with a high number of votes.

By contrast, an ally of the president, Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, won an assembly seat with a low vote toll. Yazdi is regarded as Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor.

Turnout overall was more than 60 percent - substantially higher than that of the 2002 local elections when turnout was about 50 percent, and marginally above that of the presidential elections last year when turnout was 59 percent.

Government officials have so far given no comment on the partial results. They were quick, however, to praise the turnout, saying it would send a strong message to the West that Iran is a democracy.

But a political analyst, Mostafa Mirzaeian, said Iran's political lineup was changing in favor of more moderate voices - although he stressed those winning were still within the ruling Islamic establishment.

"Results also show that a new coalition has developed between reformers and moderate conservatives, at the expense of hard-line extremists who support Ahmadinejad," he said.

More than 233,000 candidates ran for more than 113,000 council seats in cities, towns and villages across the vast nation on Friday. Local councils elect city mayors and approve community budgets and planning projects.

All municipal council candidates, including some 5,000 women, were vetted by parliamentary committees dominated by hard-liners. The committees disqualified about 10,000 nominees, according to reports in Iranian newspapers.

__________________
Obama-e fungis nati homines....

well heres some news.....even the russians are on board ( after doing what they could to dilute some of the provisions)...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The

U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose sanctions on
Iran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and ballistic missiles, a move aimed at getting Tehran to halt uranium enrichment work.

"Today we are placing Iran in the small category of states under Security Council sanctions," acting U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff told the council before the 15-0 vote.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who was successful in watering down parts of the resolution, emphasized that the resolution did not permit any use of force.

Moscow's earlier hesitation over supporting the resolution prompted a phone call on Saturday from

President George W. Bush to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had reviewed the resolution until the last minute following two months of tough negotiations. Russia is building an $800 million light-water reactor for Tehran that is exempted in the resolution.

The resolution demands Tehran end all research on uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for nuclear power plants as well as for bombs, and halt research and development that can make or deliver atomic weapons.
The thrust of the sanctions is a ban on imports and exports of dangerous materials and technology relating to uranium enrichment, reprocessing and heavy-water reactors, as well as ballistic missile delivery systems.
Iran has vowed to continue its nuclear program, which it says is for peaceful uses only.
On Saturday, its parliamentary speaker, Gholami Haddaddel, told state television Tehran would reconsider its relationship with the

International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, if the resolution passed. He did not elaborate.
Russia's Churkin said, "Russia views this resolution as a serious message being sent to Iran regarding the need to more openly and accurately cooperate with the IAEA to lift or resolve the remaining concerns and questions relating to the nuclear program."
The resolution is under Chapter 7 of under Article 41 of Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which makes enforcement mandatory but restricts action to nonmilitary measures.
U.N. votes for trade sanctions on Iran's nuclear work - Yahoo! News

__________________
Obama-e fungis nati homines....

"Iran is in a state of upheaval," the Iranian-born columnist Amil Imani wrote me by e-mail.

"It is prudent that the West does not embark on a trigger-happy policy. The mullahs' lease on life is just about over. A concerted economic and moral support should be all that is needed for the Iranian people to put an end to the shameful and hate-driven 'monkey' and his ilk."


JewishJournal.com