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Why Ahmadinejad Could Still Lose
Despite his groundbreaking message, Karroubi has no shot at victory. At 71, he is the oldest candidate and the only imam. He may be the most radical reformist among the candidates, but Iranians have their own way of moving toward secularization and seem unlikely to elect a cleric as president again.
In the end, the really agonizing choice before young Iranians is not selecting a presidential candidate. Rather, it’s determining how much to be invested in this faux election, which provides an emotional outlet for debating policy but does not actually determine Iran’s leadership. Regardless of who wins, Khamenei remains the supreme leader. Yet within the framework of his dictatorship, this week’s election gives Iranians the chance to act out the mechanisms of the democratic process, with debates, campaigning, sloganeering, and more.
In that respect, Iranians experience something much richer than the Middle East’s other faux elections, like in Tunisia, where President Ben Ali’s 90-plus percent of the vote is guaranteed, or Jordan, where all that is contested is a largely symbolic parliament. Many young Iranians are thus left with a tantalizing but ephemeral taste of what Iran could look like as a real democracy, with open civil discourse and elections not presided over by a supreme leader. Whoever wins on Friday, the real question looming over Iran’s future is whether such a democratic Iran will emerge before Cyrus retires his Playboy bunny pendant.
Xtra Insight: Plus, read more views on Iran's historic election from other Daily Beast writers.
The writer, who uses a pseudonym for his own safety, is a university student in Iran.
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SCMax101
Wow! Great Article! I hope Ahmadinejad goes down, the world would be a safer place without him on the international stage.
Josh-Narins
He wasn't on the "international stage." He has/had no foreign policy role in Iran or the world.
Uberjeff
But by being the face of Iran, by making incendiary comments that go against the actual will and belief of his people he has mischaracterized Iran to the world.
In doing so he elevates tensions and destabilizes the region. He's the Iranian Bush, though Musavi is hardly an Obama it's certainly time for a change. Even if Ahmadinejad wins or the election is overthrown, the Iranian people have still made a stand to the rest of the world. They've still come out and said "this man is not a representative of what we believe".
Hopefully the West will listen and take heart that the very idea of war with Iran is absurd and will simply poison another generation with anti-Americanism.
Hawnzz
I hope this is the beginning of real change in Iran. I'd love to see their current leader hit the road.
drmarkklein
We are finally getting our money's worth from the CIA. It's backing the students and government opponents using the same bag of financial and special favor tricks which defeated the communists at the polls in postwar Western Europe.
rbotik
"A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives
on. Ideas have endurance without death."
- John F. Kennedy
Thank you.
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