Today saw more violence and protesting across Iran. Reports pour in from various sources about more arrests, beatings, and deaths. Watching the twitter posts fly by is incredible. If you are at all interested in this, I urge you to check out Twitter and follow some of the folks I mentioned in my previous post.
From what I’m able to put together thus far, it sounds like the opposition leader, Mir Hossein Moussavi, has been a huge favorite in Iran. Polls done by CNN and others indicated that Moussavi seemed to have greater support than the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. According to a recent tweet by Raymond Jahan, the opposition leader had actually won, but the results were modified.
“CONFIRMED again: Mousavi got call election night, was told he won, next day they switch results 2 Ahmadi’s favor #gr88”
There are also rumors, likely true, that government workers were ordered to vote for Ahmadinejad or risk losing their jobs, imprisonment, etc. As was seen in Russia and other areas in the past, this is a great motivator and often results in the oppressive government remaining in power.
My heart goes out to all those who have lost loved ones in Iran and I hope they are able to bring some sort of peaceful end to this. Ultimately, though, my gut tells me that if the people in Iran truly want peace and freedom, there’s a long, bloody revolution ahead.