“Reports received by IRNA claim that Ahmadinejad has won a majority of the vote, with a large distance between himself and his rival Mousavi” says state-run IRNA in Farsi. (Special thanks to Sanaz for the translations as they come.) The report further claims that he won 75% of the vote in rural areas. The English version of IRNA has not declared a winner.
Mousavi just spoke at a press conference and declared that he won with a substantial margin.
Mehr News and Jame Jam are reporting that, with 19% of the vote in, Ahmadinejad has 69% of the vote.
Skepticism of the results prevails in the office…
update: The latest count, according to www.jamejamonline.ir:
- Ahmadinejad:14,011,664
- Mousavi: 6,575,844
- Rezai: 397,177
- Karroubi: 185,578
- Total Votes: 21,170,263
Press TV claims there were 32 million ballots cast. If that’s right, the winner will need 16 million votes to avoid a run off.
update 2: At nearly 7am Tehran time, Ahmadinejad is reported to be maintaining his lead of nearly 2/3 of the vote. The big surprise, for me, is just how negligent the Rezaie/Karroubi vote has been. A mere 3% between them seems hard to believe — almost as implausible as the 2 to 1 vote in favor of Ahmadinejad.
After the previous four years of economic mismanagement and confrontational and inflammatory rhetoric and policies — reaching a climax over the past two weeks — it’s nearly impossible for me to believe that the Iranian people so overwhelmingly prefer the status quo to the possibility of a change.
Truly, a disappointing outcome. – Patrick Disney