Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Mustafa Moin for president
Presidential candidate and outspoken Iranian reformist Mostafa Moin arrives at the Tehran University stadium to take part in his presidential rally in Tehran Tuesday June 14, 2005. A former minister of culture and higher education, Moin is the most prominent reformist candidate. He was initially barred from running by the Guardian Council, but approved after Khamenei's intervention. An ally of Khatami, Moin, 54, has made it clear he will challenge hard-liners and seek direct dialogue with Washington. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)
Mullah-favored Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani remains the front-runner, but news reports today are saying that he may not get the clear majority necessary to avoid a run-off election against the leading reformist candidate.
The tight race has aroused greater interest in the country of 67 million people than many analysts had forecast. But many have still not decided if they will vote.
"I want to place my ballot, but whatever I think about the eight nominees, I cannot find anything presenting my opinion," said Ali, 40, a carpet salesman in the Tehran bazaar. "That is the difficulty most Iranians are facing."
Suffice it to say that there are many Americans who felt the same way last year -- the trick, then, is to vote for the person whose election will most favor the change necessary for a better selection of candidates the next time.
1 Comments:
By 
Gordon Smith, at
Wed Jun 15, 08:56:00 AM:
Thanks for this Hawk. After Bush's 51%, this may be the most important election of the 21st century.
I've been a-huntin' more info:
from Editor:Myself, an Iranian blog, "The recent wave of bombing has not really affected the mood of the people. I haven't seen many people talking about it. But those who do, are seeing it as something planned to benefit Rafsanjani or Qalibaf, and to harm Moin. The stability will increase the turn out which is only to Moin's benefit.
Meanwhile, while I was at the Moin campaign headquarters last night, they were quite upbeat about the new poll results indicating Qalibaf's decline and Moin and Ahmadinejad's rise. So some of them were even hopefull about the Moin lead in the last remaining days.
I also want to visit Larijani's campaign which has actually been the worse campaign I've ever seen. Larijani is such a smart guy with a rich resume, but he is such a bad campaginer who even seems lame comparing to Qalibaf who doesn't have tenth of Larijani's stature.
I'm now leaving for Moin supporters' meeting in east-center of Tehran. Will take some pictures as well. I'm so glad I bought this little SD300 from that amazing store in New York City."
