Streets of Tehran left empty as protesters wait in vain for sign

A deadly crackdown on opposition demonstrators appeared tonight to have punctured the most serious protest movement in Iran since the 1979 revolution, as an eerie quiet settled on Tehran and the regime turned its attention to more familiar enemies overseas. Full Story »

Posted by Derek Hawkins

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William Hughes-Games
4.7
by William Hughes-Games - Jun. 22, 2009

Good article especially as it gives us a feeling for the trials of Iranians. Good to realize that they are just like us. Wanting a fair system to live under.

I wonder if the Iranians are aware of the election system in older democracies. They are very simple but may not be familiar to them. ie. Every candidate has the right to have a few representatives at every polling station. Each new poling box is inspected by the reps of each party before being locked and put in use. Polling boxes are locked as they fill and are stored in plain sight. Counting is done by representatives of every party with agreement between all of them necessary before the results are sent to the central counting location. Polling boxes are put under lock and key on site (never transported) when the counting is finished and each party has their lock on the door. And finally, the results from all polling stations is publically reported so that each party can see that what they reported was unchanged when it got to the counting centre. When I lived in Africa, the opposition party was most surprised when I told them about the rights of an opposition party. Perhaps The Iranian opposition should campaign on these very obviously reasonable measures before going to another election. Arguing against such measures would make the party in power look completely foolish.

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