Some Iranians not accepting Ahmadinejad 'victory'

Washington Post:

Iran's Interior Ministry declared Saturday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a decisive victory in Friday's presidential election, but the incumbent's leading challenger protested the results, and clashes broke out between the two candidates' supporters.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister who waged a heated campaign against Ahmadinejad's bid for reelection, urged his supporters to reject a "governance of lie and dictatorship." He attributed the results to widespread vote fraud and vowed to resist a "dangerous manipulation" of the balloting.

Later, fighting broke out at Tehran's Vanak Square among hundreds of Iranians who backed the rival candidates, Reuters news agency reported. Up to 2,000 Mousavi supporters sat down in the street, chanting: "Mousavi take back our vote! What happened to our vote?"

Police wielding batons then moved to disperse the protesters, the news agency said.

Iran's Interior Ministry announced that Ahmadinejad had won 62.6 percent of the vote in the election. The ministry said Mousavi received less than 34 percent.

"I'm warning that I won't surrender to this manipulation," Mousavi said in a statement posted on his Web site Saturday. He said the announced results were "shaking the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran's sacred system" and represented "treason to the votes of the people." He warned that the public would not "respect those who take power through fraud."

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While there is an attempt to deligitimize Ahmadinejad, its chances or succeeding are remote unless there is a massive continuous demonstration effort in Iran. The regime would probably respond with overwhelming force to crush the demonstrations.

For the US, the "results" of this election show that it is unlikely that engagement with the religious bigots will lead to anything other than further attempts to buy time to create nuclear weapons with which to attack us and Israel.