Getting your facts straight/Trita Parsi: Ahmadinejad's Math "doesn't add up" by Nulwee; Sat Jun 13, 2009 at 12:26:41 PM PDT
** Here is an excerpt from the last diary that I hyperlinked:
"[commentator] Juan Cole lays out a clear case:
'It is claimed that Ahmadinejad won the city of Tabriz with 57%. His main opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is an Azeri from Azerbaijan province, of which Tabriz is the capital. Mousavi, according to such polls as exist in Iran and widespread anecdotal evidence, did better in cities and is popular in Azerbaijan. Certainly, his rallies there were very well attended. So for an Azeri urban center to go so heavily for Ahmadinejad just makes no sense. In past elections, Azeris voted disproportionately for even minor presidential candidates who hailed from that province.' hyperlinked source: http://www.juancole.com/2009/06/stealing-iranian-election.html
Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion Juan Cole,(President of the Global Americana Institute) Saturday, June 13, 2009 Stealing the Iranian Election
Btw, Tabriz is Iran's fourth largest city, (more on cities below) and has a very liberal history as a center of poetry, mysticism and art. As an ethnic city, a tolerant city, a moderate city, Ahmadinejad would have to take this city's vote into account before hand. Dr. Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council in Washington, was just on CNN and said that the opposition is realizing it "didn't have a plan" for this kind of contested result, but Ahmadinejad's faction did.
'Ahmadinejad is claimed to have taken Tehran by over 50%. Again, he is not popular in the cities, even, as he claims, in the poor neighborhoods, in part because his policies have produced high inflation and high unemployment. That he should have won Tehran is so unlikely as to raise real questions about these numbers.'" [Juan Cole source]