Iran's Green Party is Over

By AFSHIN SALIMPOUR in Tehran | 13 June

Even before the earliest of the election results, word had spread that Mir Hossein Mousavi's private security team had doubled in size. Within an hour of the end of polling, the presidential challenger had announced a "decisive victory" but soon after the first results he was alleging massive electoral fraud.

Earlier in the evening a "pressure group" had raided one of Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign offices in the wealthy northern Tehran suburb of Qeytarieh. Information was spreading by word of mouth and through the internet. Iran's mobile phone text message system had been offline since the beginning of polling on Friday.

The story, as relayed by this website, said that a human chain had formed around the office soon after word got out. The unknown assailants, who had used tear gas to lead their charge into the building, had been forced into the basement.

There, they were trapped until the police arrived. Around one hundred officers from various arms of Iran's security forces appeared on the scene, not to arrest the assailants but to escort them away.

. . .

Early morning inside the Interior Ministry, journalists and, it was reported, the opposition candidate himself, were awaiting the final announcement of results after preliminary counts had predicted an Ahmadinejad landslide.

Outside on Fatemi Square, dozens of riot police riding motorcycles two-by-two were circling the traffic intersection, a swarm of buzzing wasps. A young man in a yellow T-shirt received a number of baton strikes to the back and shoulders as we passed.

Nearby, the central Mousavi campaign office was still defiantly displaying its banners. The entrance was manned by police officers. Just behind the glass door a large pile of papers was ablaze -- a signal of protest perhaps from those still inside.

Not more than two hundred meters away on Valiasr Avenue a crowd of young Mousavi supporters had gathered to share information and their disappointment.

"Last night in Ariashahr they cut the electricity and when they got the power back they didn't allow anyone else to vote," said a man in his early twenties.

"How could they have counted so many votes so quickly?" said another supporter in the shared taxi heading north to Vanak Square where we had heard reports of clashes between Mousavi supporters and police.

That the first results had begun to be released only two hours after the official close of polling was the single most widespread justification for claims of election rigging.

Another doubt was to take shape just hours later. Twenty-five million was the number of votes that Mousavi had said he expected to win in his 'victory' speech the night before. Rumors that the vote counts for the two candidates had simply been reversed began to gain currency. What else could explain the almost inconceivable margin by which Ahmadinejad had won?

And what of Mohsen Rezai and Mehdi Karroubi who polled barely 3% of the vote between them? Many had judged that Rezai had put Ahmadinejad in his place during their television debate. Why had the Revolutionary Guards commander not gained more support from discontent but conservative-leaning voters.

Karroubi, an ethnic Lor, was expected to do well in Iran's Western regions as he had in 2005. Furthermore, a significant number of more idealistic reformists had not followed their hero, Former President Mohammad Khatami, over to the Mousavi camp. They feared an alliance

with a man who never called himself a reformist without adding that he emphasized "the principles of the Islamic Republic."

Back on Valiasr Avenue traffic was almost at a standstill. A passing motorcyclist told us to expect trouble up ahead even though he himself was heading in the same direction. By now, the flow of information passing between taxi windows was outpacing that being relayed by

mobile phone.

"Khomeini, Khomeini, Mousavi is all alone!" came the chant from the crowd.

For the last weeks of the campaign president Ahmadinejad had been claiming the revolutionary discourse as his own. He had inflamed a deep reservoir of latent resentment against Iran's rich elite. An elite that for many Iranians, is represented by former president

Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. In a televised debate on June 3, Ahmadinejad tainted Mousavi with links to Rafsanjani, a man who many see as a corrupt establishment figure with a finger in every pie.

"At least he's not a thief," said a middle-aged engineer standing in front of a building site in a quiet alley off the main road.

"Liar, Liar, give us back our Iranian flag!" was another chant.

Ahmadinejad had responded to the green-colored tsunami of support for Mousavi by appropriating the Iranian flag as his campaign symbol. At the peak of a wave of hope and enthusiasm for a "green revolution" the president's move had seemed a crude nationalistic provocation. Today, the Iranian flags which are seen all over Tehran fluttering in the breeze of an extended Tehran spring had seemed to prove that Ahmadinejad had known better.

Many protesters wore surgical and anti-air pollution masks to avoid being photographed by intelligence agents. One fashion-conscious young woman had tied a black bandana around her nose and mouth. The heavy make-up around her eyes made her something of a main-street revolutionary and she was not the only one.

The atmosphere recalled something of the previous week's street parties but it was not to last. The sound of engines and screams shot down the street. Riot police, again doubled-up on a dozen or so motorcycles hurtled down the sidewalk, throwing firecrackers and waving nightsticks. Participants in the growing rally -- now some 2,000 strong -- threw themselves at the shopfronts. Shopkeepers scrambled either to let the frightened protesters in, or force them back out.

The main body of the crowd dispersed but quickly reformed. The first wave of police shot back the way they had come but not before two of their motorcycles had been taken and set ablaze in the middle of the street. The rally progressed toward the Interior Ministry, where the protesters believed the intrigue that had incensed them was taking place. Further waves of helmeted riot police, the smell of tear gas and the promise of a troubled night.

Hours later, re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thanked the nation on live state television for its "epic participation in a completely free election."

"A new era in the history of the Iranian nation has begun," the president announced solemnly before inviting his supporters for a celebration at 5pm at Tehran's Valiasr Square, exactly where the day's confrontations had begun.

At Ahmadinejad's election campaign events the Basij, a paramilitary force fiercely loyal to Iran's Supreme Leader, would always ensure a large and vocal turnout. There is no reason to believe that tomorrow's event will be any different.

After today's violence what happens after dark tomorrow is anyone's guess.

Copyright (c) 2009 Tehran Bureau