In the biggest presidential election turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic, some 85 percent of Iran’s electorate went to the polls last Friday and gave incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a landslide victory. Or did they? Defeated challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi claims that the official result of 62.6 percent for Mr. Ahmadinejad and just 33.7 percent for him was a “dangerous charade,” and has called for a new election. His newspaper, Kalameh Sabz, reported that more than 10 million votes were missing personal identification numbers that made the votes untraceable. He also says some polling stations closed prematurely, preventing some voters from casting ballots. Many others also suspect the legitimacy of the vote, for a number of reasons: Results from 39.2 million handwritten ballots came much more swiftly than in previous votes, emerging within hours. Detailed election data typically released has not been made public.
