The 2009 Presidential Election in Iran: Fair or foul?

Abstract

Two major ideas are interwoven in this essay. The first is that fair elections under Ahmadinejad's government in Iran were highly improbable, even almost impossible. Still, the myth of fair elections was at the root of the Green Movement. Without it, the movement that shattered the legitimacy of the Islamic Regime would have been impossible. The second major idea is based on the close scrutiny of the electoral maps, not only in 2009 but also in 2005 and the years in between. The result is baffling: not only Ahmadinejad's victory was incomprehensible in light of these data but Mousavi's score was also highly unlikely because the two other candidates' votes were disproportionately minored in order to bring about a two-pronged electoral result that nothing seemed to justify, taking into account previous elections, presidential, municipal and parliamentarian.