Anti-Ahmadinejad Faction Wins Big in Iran Elections

[Purveyor]

Source: NEWSER

(Newser) – In a battle of conservative hardliners versus conservative hardliners in Iran's elections on Friday, the winners were ... the conservative hardliners.

But in this case, it is the conservatives opposed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who appear to have come out on top, taking upward of 80% of the seats in Iran's parliamentary elections, according to one anti-Ahmadinejad hardliner. Ahmadinejad's defeat was so thorough that even his sister, running in her family's home region, lost her bid (which one analyst saw as a "possible sign of fraud.&quot .

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Read more: http://www.newser.com/story/141005/anti-ahmadinejad-faction-wins-big-in-iran-elections.html

[the_chinuk]

1. I'm forever amused by this spectacle. It doesn't really matter who's elected President in Iran …

… because it's the mullahs above him who have the final say and are the real brains of the country.

But, hey, the Iranian President does work to draw critical fire, so there's that, anyway.

[MADem]

2. Well, they scraped two thousand "not conservative" potential candidates off the ballot before the

games even began.

Anyone who thinks Iran's leadership is legitimately elected is smoking crack....

[AverageJoe90]

5. I smelled some fraud too. And sadly we were both right. nt

[secondwind]

3. Isn't the military in charge over there? Even more than the mullahs?

[MADem]

6. No. The ulema control the military--The "Dinner Jacket" is a weak leader in that he can't get much

done without the grace and favor of the head guy in charge. He can't spend money independently or order the military around without approval, and if he goes too far spies will tattle on him. He's rather hamstrung, but he is a despicable little puppet of the ayatullahs nonetheless.

[Turbineguy]

4. Ahmadinejad

is a relic from the Bush years when they needed somebody crazy enough to equal Dubja.

[Sabayon65]

7. Which "anti-Ahmadinejad faction" were they talking about?

Ahmadinejad's party, the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, is part of the conservative coalition that loosely includes the United Front of Conservatives and Monotheism and Justice Party. Ahmadinejad himself won't be up for election this term as there is a two-term limit for the President. This would be like saying that "an anti-Bush faction" won in the 2010 elections.

This does not necessarily signal a big change for Iran.