Well that's not suspicious

In a not-so-shocking turn of events, the hard-line mayor of Tehran has won the Iranian presidential election. Not only did he win, he got over 60% of the vote. Politics are a volatile thing, but that's just ridiculous. It was already suspicious when he came from behind in the initial election to get close enough for a run-off. But now, when there were no other moderate or liberal candidates except his opponent, he somehow gets a landslide victory. It doesn't make any sense. He was the only hard-liner to get a substantial number of votes in the initial election, while large numbers of votes were split between his opponent and another reform candidate. So, logic would say that everyone who was going to vote for this man already had, so he shouldn't get too many more votes than he did the first time. His opponent, on the other hand, should get the votes of everyone who doesn't support the repressive regime which would mean his majority from the first election plus all the votes for the third place man -- putting him far ahead. Even if this victor had won by a small margin it would be suspicious, but winning by a landslide is just shameless on the part of the rulers in Iran who obviously 'influenced' the election to get the man they want in office. Not that it really matters, because the current president is rather liberal and has passed many reforms but they've all been blocked by the Supreme Leader who has the final say in everything. I guess now he is just more justified in repressing the people of Iran and extending his own power. I can only hope that this oppressive move by the government serves to galvanize the revolutionary minds in Iran and they can push for a change from within. I would hope, and I guess I do, for peaceful change, but its absolutely out of the question. Vigilantes already maim and kill demonstrators -- even women -- I don't think they are going to sit idly by while their theocracy is overturned. The revolution will only work if the world supports it, so we need to pressure our government to do whatever it can to let the people of Iran know we don't support their oppressors and we do support their freedom. So far, so good.