Midnight Media Mayhem on Iran Elections!!
At this hour, Iran is ablaze with speculation about the presidential elections which produced a massive turnout from voters. Unlike the measely turnout in European parliamentary vote earlier this week, and more akin to the Lebanese parliamentary elections, ballot box traffic is booming in the Middle East. Iran is a clear example where the turnout was large enough to warrant a 4-hour extension of voting which in the end shattered the 80% record that came out to vote Khatami to office more than a decade ago!! In the period between the closing of ballot boxes and the official announcement of election results, Iranian and global media have been thrown into a whirlwind.
Reformist contender Mousavi has declared himself "definite" victor just hours after closing of ballots and relied on exit polls of 65% supporting his election. Western news agencies picked up that news and ran with it; Reuters and AP delivered stories about Mousavi's announcement caught on like wildfire in the Saturday morning press worldwide. Just minutes ago, the Interior Ministry has decided to hold an early press conference to announce results (an uncustomary occurrence given that only 20% of the votes have been counted and mostly from rural regions) where they announced that incumbent Ahmedinijad secured 69% of tallied votes.
It is unclear why both Mousavi and the Interior Ministry (an arm of the government which could raise questions about its impartiality) both took a leap to ignite frenzy about how the results given that none of the numbers so far are conclusive. Some western reporters and Mousavi supporters have started suggesting that the press conference may serve a pro-Ahmedinijad conspiracy. Rather it seems this is part of the information battle which will characterize the next few days, implying the post-election dust will not settle fast. The politically-charged atmosphere in Iran today has both camps mobilized and perhaps street-bound if the election results don't go their way. For the next few hours, until the official figures are out, Iran and much of the international community will be holding their breaths to see what will come out of this.
This is an election that has produced a phenomenal public outpouring and populism by the challenger Mousavi who has reached out to liberal-minded educated professional urbanites, youth, and women (which are thought to be the main group in the swelling of election turnout). There are questions of class, urban/rural, gender, ideology, and age that factor into this election as the faultlines became clear. Charges of corruption, nepotism, conspiracy, ignorance, and radicalism were lobbed by both candidates at each other in their televised debates. Diasporic Iranians also might factor into the election as hundreds of thousands cast their votes from around the world, with 40 stations in the US alone!!
For now, the craze continues as Iranians will spend latenight hours infront of their television sets and computers and text messages flurry back and forth between them. The infamously active Iranian blogosphere is ablaze and Iranian Facebook users are posting messages, status updates, and sharing minute-by-minute content with one another about the elections.
