Iranian Election Perspective, Part Two

There are a couple of other math issues regarding the elections in Iran I wanted to bring up. First, regarding the number of ballots.

Voter turnout in Perseopolis was unprecedented. More people voted in this election than in any other before or since. So much so in fact that ballots actually ran out.

Looking over the Iranian Guardian Council print statistics on a per-province basis we find two things. First, densely populated areas like Shiraz, and others - running out of ballots. These areas heavily favored the Green Opposition that so surprisingly lost.

Second, the actual ballots that were printed late -and counted, only seemed to have arrived from provines that favored the incumbency. Shiraz, reported massive numbers of voters turned away due to an undersupply of ballots.

The upshot of this, from a pragmatic perspective - is that a former puppet of an old regime - one who denies the holocaust, and argues for an Iranian nuclear state - has in fact tightened his hold on power. These irregularities display a definite, centralized pattern that skews the popular vote to the incumbency. The election was likely close, with Ahmadinejad - in the end - at the center of the irregularities as much to pursue the election as to purge those elements of his own circle that were controlling him. He won. So. As Shaun Appleby wrote on myDD,

The puppet of his oligarchic masters is tugging on the strings, and seems to have a pretty good grip so far.

If you thought Iran calling for Israel to be nuked off the map, was over the top. You ain't seen nothing yet.