Wampum

FYN? Friday, Yes or No? To vote or to not? To legitimize the current electoral regime -- the Guardian Council's elimination of competitive Reform candidates from the 7th Majlis and the 9th Presidential (two restored by order of the Supreme Leader) -- or to withhold legitimacy from it?

The message is circulating via SMS very widely in metro-Iran. All campaigning is now ended and there is a one-day quiet period before the polls open.

During the last week campaign rallies and field offices for Moeen (aka "Moin", the Reform candidate) have been attacked by ... gangs. There have been dumpster bombings in Tehran (no injuries), and a fast food outlet was bombed this morning in Zahedan City, injuring three.

Iranians in Afganistan are voting at the embassy in Kabul and consulates in the cities of Herat to the west, Mazari-Sharif to the north and Qandahar to the south.

Sean Penn is in Tehran as a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. He'll have to be there for another week, since Art. 117 of the Constitution calls for a second-round the Friday following between the two highest vote getters if no candidate receives an absolute majority in the first round. That's how I decode the non-withdrawal of three of the four Conservative candidates, they're running in a parallel universe primary. Of course it may not be the two highest vote getters, since they can withdraw allowing the next highest vote getter(s) to stand in the two-candidate final round a week from tomorrow. Christian Amanpour is covering the election for CNN. She's Farsi-speaking with some recent time in Iran, so her coverage may be the best available in the North American media market, modulo the CNN "news and content" filter(s).

Another SMS message making the rounds:

Do you know there's now a nineth candidate?

Who is it?

Dr. Mohsen Qalijaninejad.

The name is a contraction of Mohsen Reza�e, Mohammad Qalibaf, Ali Larijani and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who are all now "Doctors", rather than their better known attributes as former officers in the Revolutionary Guards. The point of the joke is that the four are ... interchangable, and not particularly honest about being part of the ideological apparatus.

There is something profoundly important in the boycottage question. Iranian women are much more likely to withhold their sufferage because their issues are "outside of politics". Here in the US, both parties are testosterone-driven, and the largest non-voting demographic is women between the ages of 18 and 30. MB will post on the domestic (US) piece of this in the near future.

The Interim Friday Prayers Leader of Tehran Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati in an address to thousands of worshipers at Tehran University Campus last Friday criticized unnamed presidential election candidates and said they are using "illegal" techniques in their campaigns. He accused some of the candidates of acts that "violate laws" in order to win the election and promissed them judicial prosecution unless they cease violating election laws. He then qualified the unnamed candidates -- "Now that these people do not have any official post, they are ignoring law. What would they do when they get the presidential post?" He clearly means "Dr. Mohsen Qalijaninejad" since each recently resigned from official posts (National Police, Mayor of Tehran, National Broadcasting, and maybe something else I've forgotten for the me-too-forgotnik Reza�e). Moeen and Rafsanjani have not held official posts for quite some time. He also advised the next president to avoid nepotism in selecting his colleagues and choose the officials on their merits. Merit alone. He mentioned no other ideological litmus test for the cabinet, which has a nuance in the advise-and-consent role of the (Guardian Council selected) overwhelmingly Conservative 7th Majlis.

So much for the simple Mullahs vs secular reform critique.

So, Rafsanjani and who? Moeen (Reform) or one of the four (Conservative to Fundamentalist) dwarfs? Then who next week? Rafsanjani (?) and which of the four dwarfs? And what turnout? And what turnout??

Written by Eric, using MB's lovely zd7000.