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June 13th, 2013 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda There are six candidates to choose from for Iran’s first new president in eight years. While critics say the ballot won’t be free and fair, the very manner in which Iranian people vote differs significantly from what Westerners are used to.
Speaking on the last day of a subdued campaign, Iran’s supreme
leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called on voters to turn out in
big numbers on Friday, pointing out that the “strong presence
of the Iranian nation will disappoint the enemy.”
“It is possible that some people, for whatever reason, do not
want to support the Islamic Republic’s establishment, but they do
want to support their country. They should also come to the
polls. Everyone should come to the polls,” Khamenei said in a
speech on Wednesday, reported on his website.
The winner in the 11th presidential election since Iran’s 1979
Islamic Revolution will replace the current president Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who is not eligible to run for a third term. Among
the problems to tackle will be high unemployment and inflation,
as well as international sanctions imposed over Iran’s disputed
nuclear program.
“We started presidential elections three decades ago, we had a
monarchy in Iran. So it’s all new. We are learning and trying to
make everything better and better every year,” Mohammad Reza
Nematzadeh, campaign director of one of the presidential hopefuls
Hasan Rouhani, told RT.
A number of people on the streets of Tehran told RT they are
proud of the upcoming elections, regardless of their
outcome.
“No Islamic State, not Saudi Arabia nor Kuwait would ever have
elections like we have. In those countries it’s more like someone
has appointed them to a post,” said one local.
Some Iranians complain they are simply tired of ‘conventional
politics’, however.
“Politicians become more and more distanced from the people.
The gap is wider and wider. And whole elections look more and
more like an appointment. This is why I will not vote,”
another Iranian remarked.
Others may fear going to vote because of possible violence. Mass
protests that followed the 2009 disputed elections are still
fresh in the memories of people when between 30 and 70 people
were killed, hundreds others injured, and thousands arrested
during the unrest in what became the worst domestic unrest since
the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranians staged rallies calling into
question Ahmadinejad’s ‘sweeping victory’ with a majority of 60
percent.
Six hundred and seventy-eight people registered as candidates
have been barred from standing in the election on June 14, giving
rise to criticism from the West.
The Iranian presidential vote itself may seem somewhat different
to the Western eye, in terms of election campaigns and tactics,
as RT’s Maria Finoshina reports from the Iranian capital.
“If people see a campaign poster, they’ll start thinking ‘they
spend lots of money on that! Where does it all come from?’ And
they will draw the conclusion that someone – a bank or an
organization – funds the candidate. This means that when a
candidate takes power, he will have to give back the money, he
will owe them. And with such strings attached, he’ll never
be free. People will never vote for a politician like that,”
Reza Moghadasi, from news agency MEHR, told RT.
Therefore, you won’t see
numerous banners or posters scatted across Iran ahead of the
country’s 11th presidential vote, but not because they have been
banned. Candidates prefer to run low-cost grass-roots campaigns,
with their supporters handing out fliers on the streets,
advertising different political programs.
Candidates these days also seek alternative support among Iranian
internet users.
“Twelve million people are now using the internet. It is much
easier to communicate with them. But the people in more rural
areas, we need more trying to get to them, this is our weak
point,” Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said.
The golden rule is not to go against the norms and traditions
deep-rooted in the Iranian society. The fact remains that key
Iranian policies, such as its controversial uranium enrichment
program and Iran’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, are
still decided by one person, Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei.
“A candidate cannot go against our religious or cultural
traditions; you cannot change the way women wear hijabs. And as
for taboos on foreign policy issues – you cannot come out and
say, ‘Iran will become a friend of the US or Israel’,”
director of newspaper Mohamed Pirali explained.
Pirali says these restrictions are aimed at protecting the
national character of the elections.
“You cannot go against values, even democratic countries can’t
do that… but perhaps if we weren’t under so much pressure from
foreign countries that only want to change the government of Iran
our campaign could be different,” he added.
The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term. If no
candidate rakes in 50 per cent of the ballots cast in the first
round, a runoff vote will be held in two weeks, on June 21. In
the second round, the candidate with the most votes will become
the winner and will take office after approval by the Guardian
Council.
Source Article from http://rt.com/news/iran-election-turnout-presidential-610/
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