You obviously never been around Iranians, have you?
The only Iranians Ahmadinejad represents are the poor and lower class. Voter turnout was the lowest ever compared to 2001 and 1997.
Stop fooling yourself, Iranians hate their government a lot more and have a lot more sense when choosing their path than stupid Taliban-worshipping Pakistanis.
i've spent time with very varied types of iranians. the iranian diaspora has very liberal views, but that does not always translate to an electoral majority in the actual country. Have you ever visited Iran?
if Ahmadinejad only represents the poor and lower class, and according to you he doesnt have mass support, do you mean to say Iran is an economic powerhouse with a disproportionately large upper/middle class? Congress came to power in india mainly due to the lower and poor class. That does not mean that it is non representative.
Rahi baat voter turnout ki, a low voter turnout in Iran (60% last elections according to BBC) is still higher than a relatively high voter turn out in Pakistan and AMERICA.
iran is not an industrial society, its an agricultiral society like pakistan and thus the power base of most politicians of iran lies in the rural areas
^^ thats true but since he was elected by the poor on the platform to make their lives better and that hans't happened so he has lost some of that vote
ahmedinijad is very similar to bush
bush's supporters are mostly rural areas of america and bush's ratings have declined with mostly rural voters since he never had the city vote
Can you tell me which opponent, specifically, was banned from running against him? The whole ban controversy was related to the MPs running for parliament, not presidential candidates.
The Guardian Council decides who can run for president and who cannot ravage, candidates must be 'officially approved' by them.
the consequences however of bringing these niggly issues upon ahmedinejad and his country at a time like this are damaging.
those were my personal views about the guy and they only factored in when I said that even though I personally dislike the guy he seems to have come out ahead in the columbia fiasco, just like he did in his previous interview, because of the moronic and lowclass approach of columbia uni president.
While Mr. Ahmedi Nejad, President of Iran was visiting Columbia University in NY, people , some outside ..... were chanting slogans such as No to terrorist and Go to Hell..
Thats fine since its a free society..... (:)
However, the way they grilled the President of a country with such rude remarks as did the president of Columbia university , it was quite sad...
One may have differences but atleast treat your guest with respect and that too an elected President of a country.
Its also rude to ask questions such as " why are female homosexuals persecuted in Iran".. Sick question.. I must say. Since its sick even now for many people in US and Europe, what to talk of the ISlamic Republic..
I hope somebody watched the coverage of the live speech at COlumbia unv.
there are certain criteria required of candidates but that doesnt stop liberal/modernist people from coming up. its not as if some iconic liberal candidate attempted to run last time but was disallowed. khatemi was liberal, rafsanjani was regarded as a pragmatist with backing of the elite. even though he is very well known, he was defeated by ahmadinejad.
their guardian council seems to be something similar to the one Mushie made, National Security Council (?), except that instead of the army you have the mullas.
na.. u can have degrees and variations of democracy, you would be pained to characterize their government otherwise. theres no one dictator figure weilding power such as musharraf in iran. khamenei is more akin to the presidents of yesteryear in pak.. figurehead (but powerful figurehead). the other prominent personalities are elected, even after being vetted, by pretty well contested elections. with high participation rates from the electorate. higher than the US.
so they're certainly representative of the people, even if they're vetted beforehand.