Ahmedinijad Landslide, SMS Frozen, Streets Charged
Saturday morning, Iranians woke up to a perplexing situation. Election results announced by national television networks show a decisive blow to the Green contender Mousavi with a landslide in favor of the notorious incumbent Ahmedinijad. This is anything but what was expected and speculated by Western media. The announced 67% victory for the conservative leader left global observers puzzled and his contestants defiant. Some analysts in the West have argued that Iran will likely exhibit what has been referred to as "The Obama Effect" indicating the US president's charm in the region and ability to sway elections. Mousavi has stated clearly that he intends to challenge the results, with his supporters pouring into the streets to express their dismay and vowed to launch "Operation Sovereignty" with confrontational slogans such as "If there was fraud, there will be riots." Fear of a backlash by Mousavi supporters may have prompted Iranian authorities to shutdown all text (sms) message services in the country for a whole day. Some bloggers and facebookers have accused the authorities of trying to fragment and disconnect Mousavi supporters by crippling their ability to connect with one another and mobilize. Anytime now, the election committee is supposed to announce the final results with 95% of ridings reporting. The ramifications of this announcement are anyone's guess, but could be significant if election fraud is seen as a probable.
