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Iranian Presidential elections 2005 - An election like never before
04/07/2005
 Hossein Ansari Pour |  |
Many people in Iran and outside Iran have been shocked with the result of the Iranian presidential election. Maybe one reason for this was that Iran has never had an election like this, which was unprecedented in every aspect. It was for the first time since the Islamic revolution in 1979, that there were as many as 7 candidates contending for the presidency, and it was also for the first time that such a close presidential election led to a second round.
I was in Iran 3 weeks prior to the first round of presidential elections and could hear people saying that they are going to boycott the elections and that no one is going to cast their vote as a sign of displeasure and protest to the system of the Islamic Republic. This could sound very disappointing for the Iranian leaders as a bad turn out in the presidential election would be a second blow to their legitimacy after the low turn out in the Parliamentary elections last year.
One other thing which could be widely heard throughout the middle-class people of Tehran was that Rafsanjani is definitely going to win and if they ever vote they’ll vote for him because of his experience and that Iran now requires a man like him for it to prosper and move in the right direction domestically and in the international arena.
So I was expecting a low turn out like many others in and outside of Iran, but a few days before the election date I started to see posters and banners everywhere and not only on walls and street corners. It was individuals who were publicising their preferred candidates in every possible manner. Many young people had stuck the pictures and slogans of their selected candidates on their cars, foreheads and shirts.
I could remember that just about a week before the election date, Iran had beaten Bahrain in the run-up to the world cup which paved Iran’s way to go to the world cup for the second time since the victory of the Islamic revolution in Iran and how the youth and people of Tehran were celebrating the victory in the streets and motorways of the Capital. Yet, what I experienced and saw days before the first round of the presidential election and the number of people who had poured into the streets of Tehran in support of their presidential candidates was much higher and with more liveliness and enthusiasm.
For a moment I pondered what was all the gossip about and why were people saying that they are not going to vote. Against all the odds, Iranian people and in particular the younger generation were indicating a great presence a few days before the elections. Ironically, these young people were not the fundamentalists or the more religious part of the youths but the ones that one might recognise as the more westernised youths of Iran.
However, most of the youth were in support of Rafsanjani based on rumours that should he become the president, he will scrap Hijab (Islamic dress code), lift the ban of viewing of foreign satellite channels, resume relations with the US and bring about economic prosperity for the country. So for them the pragmatist Rafsanjani who is also a cleric had turned into an idol of freedom that with his unquestionable influence in the Iranian system and his previous experience of 8 years as the president was more likely to materialise his pledges.
Although talking to people in the streets and also people in the government you could hear them say that it was possible for Dr Ghalibaf, another candidate and the former police chief, to win the elections and people were assuming that if there was a second round it would be a contest between Rafsanjani and Ghalibaf.
After the first round of elections when the votes were counted, the Iranian people were shocked as they heard the radio and watched their TV screens. It was Ahmadinejad (pictured above) the mayor of Tehran who had made his way up to the second round to fight against Rafsanjani.
People in Tehran were absolutely terrified with the thought that what if he wins and what if this is a set up and elections were cheated. They saw him as an ultra-fundamentalist who will take Iran 27 years back to the time of the triumph of the Islamic revolution. To be honest, many were also displeased with the way he looked, because in Iran, probably like everywhere else, people attach great importance to one’s appearance especially if he/she is going to represent them at an international level. So for the younger generation he was not an option.
I can remember the night after the first round of presidential elections when I was waiting in the queue of a sandwich shop to buy myself a sandwich and saw a few young men who had come to buy food for their party telling me and others there, that whether we like Rafsanjani or not we must take part in the second round of elections and vote for him to avoid Ahmadinejad winning. Also I can remember receiving a text message on my mobile days before the second round of elections which was apparently sent to me and many others in Iran, saying “If we put our hands together and vote for Akbar (Rafsanjani’s first name) it would be far better than leaving the country to a monkey (Ahmadinejad).
So, now even those who had not voted in the first round were motivated to vote in the second round in the hope that they could prevent the mayor of Tehran becoming their president. And there were a few who were saying, lets vote for Ahamdinejad, so that he will enforce strict rules once he’s the president and people will erupt against him after a while and we’ll see an end to this regime.
As we heard the results of the second round when everyone was obviously expecting success for Rafsanjani, the whole Iranian people were once again shocked and surprised at the results. Ahmadinejad had won a landslide victory against Rafsanjai, beating him by nearly two-third of the votes.
The first thing that crossed everyone’s mind was that the election was tampered with and cheated, as they could hardly conceive of such high numbers voting for Ahmadinejad in Iran. I was also beginning to doubt the healthiness of these elections when I suddenly remembered something which I heard in a trip I had made to Iran just before Christmas in December 2004 when I had a meeting with one of the managers in Tehran Municipality where Ahmadinejad was the mayor.
I was there with an English colleague of mine to discuss possible cultural co-operation between our two organisations. There, I posed this question to this close associate of Ahmadinejad, that whether his superior is seriously planning to nominate himself for the presidential elections and the reply was “he is not going to become a candidate for the presidential elections, he is already [selected as] the president”.
What he said at the time sounded very naive and childish to me but remembering it after the results of the second round of elections, I just couldn’t believe that someone could have been so sure of this result six months back. So I began to speculate the authenticity and credibility of these elections too. However this could have been only a mere ambitious speculation on his part for his superior whom he seemed to have much faith in.
Then I began to replay everything I had seen and heard since I went to Iran three weeks before the elections and even what I had heard six months back to see if I can convince myself that this election was fair and authentic.
Then I realised that I had missed something important in my observation of the events leading to the elections. I was only talking to people and seeing things in Tehran and particularly in Northern Tehran where people enjoy better standards of life and are more westernised in comparison with any other parts of Iran, not to mention Tehran itself.
My observation was based on a very small minority of a country with a population of over 70 million people, more than half of which easily live below the line of poverty and are still devoted to the Islamic values and norms. I was only seeing things in the small circle which I was spending most of my time and was ignorant of the greater circle away from me. Everyone around me was saying that they had voted for Rafsanjani, so it is going to be a bit of a surprise if I heard Rafsanjani hasn’t won having heard everyone around me voting for him.
It seems very unlikely that this election could have been a set up or a cheat. I will be able to comprehend the fact that one or two million votes could have been shifted to the favour of Ahmadinejad but the gap between Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad is far too high for one to be able to conceive of such an assumption.
But, of course, this may not be all to why Ahmadinejad won the elections. Certainly, a trace of a well-planned election campaign can be seen which was planned long before June 2005. It proved to be a very successful campaign and it bore fruits, which this campaign was waiting to taste.
I think what the Iranian people and those observers outside the country should do now, is to respect the choice of the majority of the Iranian people which is the prerequisite of a democratic society and let time judge the new Iranian president by his words and actions.
* Quotes from Mr Ahmadinejad speaking before and after his surprise win in Iran's elections
* Reaction to Iran's presidential elections by governments around the world
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