More, the Same, or Less Future Aggression toward the Big Devil and the Little Devil, will be determined by Friday’s Election Results in Iran.
December 16, 2006
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
The outcome of Friday’s Iranian elections will demonstrate the rise or the decline in the popularity of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s actions thus far in the office of President.
If it has declined we can expect a decline in his aggression or the opposite if it has increased. We should have the first count results on Sunday and the complete count later in the week.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article
Iran begins voting in local Elections
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST
December 15, 2006
Iranians voted heavily Friday in local council elections that could be a gauge of popular dissatisfaction with hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and of reformists’ potential to rebuild their suppressed movement.
The government twice extended polling – to a
total of three hours extra – to allow long lines of voters to get through the polling stations in the capital, Teheran.
The head of the electoral organization, Deputy Interior Minister Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, told state TV that many stations had asked for more ballot papers as they had run out.
“The number of voters has exceeded expectations,” he said.
Independent observers confirmed the turnout appeared to be higher than in previous elections, such as those that brought Ahmadinejad to power in June l
ast year.
Counting began as soon as polls closed at 10 p.m. local time (1830 GMT). First results were due to appear Sunday, with final
results expected Monday or later.
“The elections are a chance to demonstrate the nobility of the Iranian people,” Ahmadinejad said. State TV showed the president waiting in line with other people to cast his ballot at a mosque in a middle-class district of Teheran.
People eagerly discussed the polls in the streets of Teheran, with some pledging to support the president.
Farideh Borna, a student, said she voted for a “pro-Ahmadinejad list” of local councillors because “I wanted to help him to fulfill his promises.”
But Ahmadinejad was expected to lose the support of those fellow conservatives who feel he has spent too much time confronting the West rather than reviving the economy and changing things to benefit the people.
Reformists are hoping that the local elections will show that support for their policies still exists. Iranian liberals held the presidency and dominated parliament and local councils in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but have been largely crushed by hard-liners in recent years.
All the 233,000 candidates for town and city councils, including some 5,000 women, were vetted by parliamentary committees that are dominated by hard-liners. The committees disqualified about 10,000 nominees, reports said.
The local councils approve community budgets and planning projects. In smaller cities and towns, the councils also elect
the mayor.
In Teheran and other large cities, the councils propose mayoral nominees, and the Interior Ministry chooses.
Friday’s vote was only the third time that Iranians had voted for local councils, a reform introduced in 1999 by former reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
Voters also cast ballots Friday for the Assembly of Experts, a body of 86 senior clerics that monitors Iran’s supreme leader and chooses his successor.
Turnout was expected to be lower in the assembly election
because there was little difference among the candidates, who were selected by a watchdog controlled by hard-liners.
Among those running for the assembly’s seats were former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former Iranian top nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani, and two top hard-line clerics Ahmad Jannati and Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, both prominent supporters of Ahmadinejad.
End Jerusalem Post Article
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