I appreciate the fact that Doug actually responded to the issue raised. Here is the crux:
"Yet the clearest violation of the law would be Mousavi and Karroubi’s claim that their observers were not allowed to be present when ballots were counted and the ballot boxes sealed. By law and custom, these observers confirm that the boxes are empty before voting starts, and they are present at the count, sign the result sheet and take away a copy." It is also my understanding, confirmed with several sources, that by law each campaign is allowed to have one observer at each polling place, that the observer is supposed to be able to inspect the ballot box at the beginning of voting to verify that it is empty, and to observe the count at the end. [One source told me that the observers sign the papers at the end, but several other sources told me they don't sign, but they do observe.] It is true that supporters of Mousavi have claimed that their observers were not allowed to observe the count. But I have not seen it documented anywhere where this was supposed to have taken place. It is not documented in Mousavi's complaint to the Guardian Council. If anyone has seen such documentation or knows where it is, please bring it to my attention. My understanding, so far, is that there were 45,000 ballot boxes, and that Mousavi had 41,000 observers, some observing at multiple polling places. [The law says the campaigns are entitled to one observer per polling place - it does not say that they must have one.] In the piece I posted, I interviewed someone who talked to Mousavi's campaign manger for Abadan. There were 142 ballot boxes in Abadan; Mousavi had 127 observers. Mousavi's campaign manager for Abadan did not dispute the official count from Abadan, he said his numbers were basically the same as the Interior Ministry's. So, that would seem to indicate that in Abadan, Mousavi's observers were not blocked. If there were blocked somewhere else, where were they blocked? On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 1:51 PM, Doug Henwood<[email protected]> wrote: > > On Jun 29, 2009, at 5:43 PM, Robert Naiman wrote: > >> Like many Iranians, including many Iranians who didn't vote for >> Ahmadinejad and don't support Ahmadinejad, but whose voices have been >> largely absent from Western media, even progressive media, Habib is >> deeply skeptical of opposition claims that the Presidential election >> on June 12 was "stolen," and has demanded that the opposition provide >> specific evidence of its claims. > > > <http://www.merip.org/mero/mero062809.html> > > Slaps in the Face of Reason > > In the early afternoon of June 13, the Ministry of Interior announced the > final “result” of the election. The turnout was a record-setting 85 percent > and Ahmadinejad had won with 63 percent of the vote, followed by Mousavi > with 34 percent, with Rezaei and Karroubi earning a mere 2 percent and less > than 1 percent, respectively. These figures were remarkably congruent with > early morning returns released prior to the closure of some overseas polls > and strangely consistent across all regions of the country. > > For many Iranians, the dispute over this “result” is not simply about the > outcome -- Ahmadinejad’s anointment as president -- but about the basic > election procedures and laws that were violated. Beyond this, many voters > are insulted by the responses of both Ahmadinejad and Khamenei to the > popular skepticism, with the president-select dismissing the protesters’ > misgivings as “dirt” and the Supreme Leader unaccountably averring that the > entire nation is united behind the official tally. The cries of CIA and MI-6 > manipulation are likewise a slap in the face of reason. The Tehran > municipality, run by the conservative mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, has > estimated the number of protesters in mid-June at 3 million. These are not > only the chic middle classes beloved of Western photographers: They are also > the women in chadors, working-class youths and older people who are > supposedly in thrall to the undying revolutionary fervor to which > Ahmadinejad appeals. > > Several examples will illuminate the reasons for the rampant disbelief in > the June 12 “result.” Unlike in previous elections, the Ministry of Interior > authorized deployment of 14,000 mobile voting booths, making it very > difficult for candidates to send monitors to observe the balloting at every > booth. Some 14.5 million extra ballots, by some reports, were printed and no > clear system was delineated to track them. When several polling stations in > urban centers ran out of ballots, Mousavi supporters asked where the extra > ballots were, but they could not be found, and remain unaccounted for to > date. Communication among campaign workers was hindered when SMS messaging > was turned off and a web page associated with the Mousavi campaign was shut > down. The popular BBC Persian service was jammed to restrict the flow of > information. In the evening of June 12, a Mousavi campaign building was > raided by the authorities, with several volunteers detained, before being > released and then rearrested the next day. > > Yet the clearest violation of the law would be Mousavi and Karroubi’s claim > that their observers were not allowed to be present when ballots were > counted and the ballot boxes sealed. By law and custom, these observers > confirm that the boxes are empty before voting starts, and they are present > at the count, sign the result sheet and take away a copy. They are also > supposed to be present when the ballot boxes are finally sealed and sent to > the Interior Ministry. A 65-year old monitor in charge of a station at a > mosque in the modest, middle-class Yousefabad neighborhood of Tehran told > local journalists: “Compared to previous elections, we had a huge turnout. > Two years ago we had barely 400 votes at our station. This time, more than > 2,000 voted. We closed the station and started counting the votes. By > midnight we were done. Mousavi had 1,600 votes, Ahmadinejad approximately > 300, and Karroubi and Rezaei each had around 150 or 200. We were in the > process of filling out the forms and signing them when the announcement came > that Ahmadinejad had won with two thirds of the votes!” Interviews by local > journalists in and around the Shahid Mahallati neighborhood of northeast > Tehran, where a vast quadrant of the city is closed off in gated communities > for the families of the military, Revolutionary Guards and intelligence > personnel, indicated that even this stratum of the electorate was divided in > its choice of candidate. Several women who live in the compound indicated > that they had neighbors who supported various > candidates._______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
