H/T Weasel Zippers
The Telegraph UK
written by Con Coughlin
Sunday February 26, 2012
At a meeting called last week by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, the leaders of the Revolutionary Guards and the volunteer Basij militia were urged to use the same tactics employed during the controversial 2009 presidential election contest.
On that occasion widespread vote-rigging led to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being elected to serve a second four year term, a result that produced nationwide anti-government protests.
Mr Khamenei has since fallen out with Mr Ahmadinejad in a bitter dispute over the future role of the presidency in Iranian politics.
As a consequence Mr Khamenei is now urging the Revolutionary Guards to ensure his Conservative Front wins the majority of seats in Friday’s parliamentary seats at the expense of Mr Ahmadinejad’s supporters.
During the meeting, which was attended by Ali Larijani, the chairman of the Iranian parliament and a close ally of the Supreme Leader, Mr Khamenei repeatedly referred to the president’s followers as the “deviant movement”, and insisted that they take all necessary measures to prevent Mr Ahmadinejad’s followers from winning the elections.
According to Iranian opposition sources, Mr Khamenei warned that his supporters also needed to maintain a constant check on the activities of the leaders of Iran’s Green Movement, Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Kharroubi, who unsuccessfully stood against Mr Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential election.
Opposition activists claim Mr Khamenei told his supporters that they needed to be on their guard against the possibility that pro-democracy forces unleashed by the recent wave of Arab revolts could spread to Iran. “The regime is up to all its old tricks and is trying to rig the election,” said an Iranian activist.
Iran’s parliamentary elections are taking place against a backdrop of mounting international pressure over Iran’s controversial nuclear programme. Last week officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said Iran had failed to cooperate with a team of nuclear inspectors sent to Tehran to clear up questions about possible military aspects of its nuclear programme.
Mr Khamenei and his advisors believe this week’s parliamentary elections will provide the regime with greater legitimacy in its stand-off with the West over its nuclear programme, and for that reason they are anxious to ensure that there is both a high turn out for the elections and a comprehensive factory for the Conservative Front.
The Council of Guards, the body controlled by Mr Khamenei which is responsible for safe-guarding the principles of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, has already vetted the names of all those putting themselves forward for election to ensure that only regime loyalists are approved.
The Revolutionary Guards and Basij have now been tasked with making sure that Iranians only vote for those candidates who support Mr Khamenei, and not Mr Ahmadinejad.
But with the regime firmly controlling all aspects of the election campaign there are fears that many Iranians will simply boycott the election as a way of registering a protest vote. This includes the millions of Iranians who support Iran’s Green Movement, which has been brutally suppressed since the disputed 2009 election, with many of the movement’s leaders either being killed or imprisoned.
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