Politics
Ahmadinejad Declared Winner Amid Fraud Charges
Reading Time: 4 minutesIrans government has declared President Mahmud Ahmadinejad the decisive winner in the June 12 election.
By Golnaz Esfandiari
Iran’s government has declared President Mahmud Ahmadinejad the decisive winner in the June 12 election.
The Interior Ministry announced that Ahmadinejad won 62.63 percent of the vote, while the top challenger, Mir Hossein Musavi, won 33.75 percent.
Officials say turnout topped 85 percent, the highest ever for a national election in the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, praised Ahmadinejad’s re-election. In a statement, he said Ahmadinajad’s landslide victory was a "real feast which can guarantee the country’s progress, national security and lasting joy."
Khamenei went on to say that the election was a “massive success” and he urged everyone to be grateful for this “divine blessing."
But Musavi, who last night claimed victory for his camp, says there were clear “irregularities." In an open statement addressed to the Iranian people he described the announced results as “shocking” and called on officials to acknowledge the people’s choice.
Musavi said he will not surrender to what he termed a “dangerous charade.” He urged his supporters to resist what he called a "governance of lies and dictatorship."
Musavi was due to have a news conference on the afternoon of June 13 in Tehran, but the event was cancelled. Musavi said on his website that the news conference would be rescheduled for another day.
The two other presidential candidates, conservative Mohsen Rezai and reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi, received about 3 percent of the vote, according to the official tally.
In a statement on June 13, Karrubi said the result of the election was "illegitimate and unacceptable."
Protesters Clash
News agencies report that hundreds of supporters of Ahmadinejad and Musavi clashed in Tehran after the ministry declared the winner. Reuters reported that fist fights broke out on Tehran’s Vanak Square.
Hundreds of Musavi supporters protested, chanting "Musavi, take back our vote! What happened to our vote?" (See Video below: Protesters rally in support of Musavi).
Police have been deployed outside the offices of the election commission and government buildings. The nationwide SMS text messaging system, which went down on June 12, remains largely blocked.
The announced results have led to a show of joy among Ahmadinejad’s supporters.
“We’ve been waiting for a night like this for an entire week and I am grateful for the gift that God has given us!” said one woman who celebrating in Tehran on election night.
Many, however, are expressing shock over the official results and questioning the reported big win for Ahmadinejad, who has been under fire by his rivals for his economic mismanagement and isolation of the country.
Mehdi Arabshahi, one of the leaders of Iran’s largest reformist student group, told Radio Farda that he has serious doubts about the official results.
“So far they have announced that Ahmadinejad has about 20 million votes, but based on what we saw [in Tehran] and reports we had from other cities and even villages, it was the opposite of what was announced — meaning that all were pretty sure that another candidate would win in the first round. And if not, they were expecting a runoff,” Arabshahi said.
Unconfirmed reports say that Musavi, Karrubi, and Rezai, along with former president Mohammad Khatami, have either already met with Khamenei or have requested a meeting. Khamenei implicitly expressed his support for Ahmadinejad ahead of balloting.
Warnings Of Fraud
Ahead of the vote, Karrubi and Musavi had warned of possible election fraud.
Another Tehran-based observer, who did not want to be named, told RFE/RL that many believe there has in fact been massive fraud.
Critics note the record speed with which Ahmadinejad’s preliminary victory was announced, along with some highly unusual local results.
For example, according to the official tally, reformist Mehdi Karrubi came in a distant second in his own hometown of Oligudarz, garnering less than half of Ahmadinejad’s vote.
Sarejeddin Mirdamadi, a reformist journalist in Tehran, says suspicious movements he observed at the Interior Ministry add to his concerns. The Interior Ministry is in charge of counting the votes.
“I wanted to enter the Interior Ministry but they prevented me, even though I had an entry pass,” Mirdamadi said. “There I saw that they also prevented a number of the staff who wanted to go to work from entering the building. Later one of them called me and said that a group of personnel from different divisions of the Ministry were not allowed to enter the building.”
The official results have also staggered independent Iran watchers.
Karim Sadjadpour, a senior Iran analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Reuters that no one expected this level of “fraudulence."
Abolhassan Bani Sadr, the first president of Iran following the 1979 revolution, spoke to Radio Farda from his home in Paris. He went even further, recalling the words of Adolf Hitler’s chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels, who famously said: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually believe it."
“In my view this is a massive fraud; there is nothing vague about it,” he said.
In the run-up to the June 12, vote many young people had been holding street parties to express support for their candidates.
Many were hoping for change, especially the legions of young people and women sporting Musavi’s green campaign color in a public show of support. Some of them are now expressing huge disappointment and frustration on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Some have posted a photo of a burning Iranian map on their Facebook page, while others are calling today "Black Saturday,” and "bidding farewell to hope."
Tehran based sociologist Hamidreza Jalaeipour tells Radio Farda that he doesn’t expect young reformists to take to the streets.
“The authorities have got them in the head with these results,” he said. “I think a few days will pass — they want to know what will happen. But it’s not a society that would react nervously. I think their reaction will also be green."
It appears much will depend on the losing candidates, especially Musavi himself, and the guidance they give their supporters. Many observers believe they’re likely to call for calm.
Radio Farda’s Mahin Gorji and Alireza Taheri contributed to this report.
A new football club has earned a leading place in the UEFA Champions League groups and starred in the headlines of worldwide football news yesterday. The Football Club Sheriff Tiraspol claimed a win with the score 2-1 against Real Madrid on the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. That made Sheriff Tiraspol the leader in Group D of the Champions League, including the football club in the groups of the most important European interclub competition for the first time ever.
International media outlets called it a miracle, a shock and a historic event, while strongly emphasizing the origin of the team and the existing political conflict between the two banks of the Dniester. “Football club from a pro-Russian separatist enclave in Moldova pulls off one of the greatest upsets in Champions League history,” claimed the news portals. “Sheriff crushed Real!” they said.
Moldovans made a big fuss out of it on social media, splitting into two groups: those who praised the team and the Republic of Moldova for making history and those who declared that the football club and their merits belong to Transnistria – a problematic breakaway region that claims to be a separate country.
Both groups are right and not right at the same time, as there is a bunch of ethical, political, social and practical matters that need to be considered.
Is it Moldova?
First of all, every Moldovan either from the right or left bank of Dniester (Transnistria) is free to identify himself with this achievement or not to do so, said Vitalie Spranceana, a sociologist, blogger, journalist and urban activist. According to him, boycotting the football club for being a separatist team is wrong.
At the same time, “it’s an illusion to think that territory matters when it comes to football clubs,” Spranceana claimed. “Big teams, the ones included in the Champions League, have long lost their connection both with the countries in which they operate, and with the cities in which they appeared and to which they linked their history. […] In the age of globalized commercial football, teams, including the so-called local ones, are nothing more than global traveling commercial circuses, incidentally linked to cities, but more closely linked to all sorts of dirty, semi-dirty and cleaner cash flows.”
What is more important in this case is the consistency, not so much of citizens, as of politicians from the government who have “no right to celebrate the success of separatism,” as they represent “the national interests, not the personal or collective pleasures of certain segments of the population,” believes the political expert Dionis Cenusa. The victory of FC Sheriff encourages Transnistrian separatism, which receives validation now, he also stated.
“I don’t know how it happens that the “proud Moldovans who chose democracy”, in their enthusiasm for Sheriff Tiraspol’s victory over Real Madrid, forget the need for total and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria!” declared the journalist Vitalie Ciobanu.
Nowadays, FC Sheriff Tiraspol has no other choice than to represent Moldova internationally. For many years, the team used the Moldovan Football Federation in order to be able to participate in championships, including international ones. That is because the region remains unrecognised by the international community. However, the club’s victory is presented as that of Transnistria within the region, without any reference to the Republic of Moldova, its separatist character being applied in this case especially.
Is it a victory?
In fact, FC Sheriff Tiraspol joining the Champions League is a huge image breakthrough for the Transnistrian region, as the journalist Madalin Necsutu claimed. It is the success of the Tiraspol Club oligarchic patrons. From the practical point of view, FC Sheriff Tiraspol is a sports entity that serves its own interests and the interests of its owners, being dependent on the money invested by Tiraspol (but not only) oligarchs.
Here comes the real dilemma: the Transnistrian team, which is generously funded by money received from corruption schemes and money laundering, is waging an unequal fight with the rest of the Moldovan football clubs, the journalist also declared. The Tiraspol team is about to raise 15.6 million euro for reaching the Champions League groups and the amounts increase depending on their future performance. According to Necsutu, these money will go directly on the account of the club, not to the Moldovan Football Federation, creating an even bigger gab between FC Sheriff and other football clubs from Moldova who have much more modest financial possibilities.
“I do not see anything useful for Moldovan football, not a single Moldovan player is part of FC Sheriff Tiraspol. I do not see anything beneficial for the Moldovan Football Federation or any national team.”
Is it only about football?
FC Sheriff Tiraspol, with a total estimated value of 12.8 million euros, is controlled by Victor Gusan and Ilya Kazmala, being part of Sheriff Holding – a company that controls the trade of wholesale, retail food, fuels and medicine by having monopolies on these markets in Transnistria. The holding carries out car trading activities, but also operates in the field of construction and real estate. Gusan’s people also hold all of the main leadership offices in the breakaway region, from Parliament to the Prime Minister’s seat or the Presidency.
The football club is supported by a holding alleged of smuggling, corruption, money laundering and organised crime. Moldovan media outlets published investigations about the signals regarding the Sheriff’s holding involvement in the vote mobilization and remuneration of citizens on the left bank of the Dniester who participated in the snap parliamentary elections this summer and who were eager to vote for the pro-Russian socialist-communist bloc.
Considering the above, there is a great probability that the Republic of Moldova will still be represented by a football club that is not identified as being Moldovan, being funded from obscure money, growing in power and promoting the Transnistrian conflict in the future as well.
Photo: unknown
Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Natalia Gavrilita, together with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nicu Popescu, pay an official visit to Brussels, between September 27-28, being invited by High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell Fontelles.
Today, Prime Minister had a meeting with Charles Michel, President of the European Council. The Moldovan PM thanked the senior European official for the support of the institution in strengthening democratic processes, reforming the judiciary and state institutions, economic recovery and job creation, as well as increasing citizens’ welfare. Natalia Gavrilita expressed her confidence that the current visit laid the foundations for boosting relations between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union, so that, in the next period, it would be possible to advance high-level dialogues on security, justice and energy. Officials also exchanged views on priorities for the Eastern Partnership Summit, to be held in December.
“The EU is open to continue to support the Republic of Moldova and the ambitious reform agenda it proposes. Moldova is an important and priority partner for us,” said Charles Michel.
Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita also met with Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for Economy, expressing her gratitude for the support received through the OMNIBUS macro-financial assistance program. The two officials discussed the need to advance the recovery of money from bank fraud, to strengthen sustainable mechanisms for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in Moldova, and to standardize the customs and taxes as one of the main conditions for deepening cooperation with the EU in this field.
Additionally, Prime Minister spoke about the importance of the Eastern Partnership and the Deep Free Trade Agreement, noting that the Government’s policies are aimed at developing an economic model aligned with the European economic model, focused on digitalization, energy efficiency and the green economy.
A common press release of the Moldovan Prime Minister with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the Commission, Josep Borrell Fontelles, took place today, where the agenda of Moldova’s reforms and the main priorities to focus on in the coming months were presented: judiciary reform; fighting COVID-19 pandemic; promoting economic recovery and conditions for growth and job creation; strengthening state institutions and resilience of the country.
“I am here to relaunch the dialogue between my country and the European Union. Our partnership is strong, but I believe there is room for even deeper cooperation and stronger political, economic and sectoral ties. I am convinced that this partnership is the key to the prosperity of our country and I hope that we will continue to strengthen cooperation.”
The Moldovan delegation met Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice. Tomorrow, there are scheduled common meetings with Oliver Varhelyi, European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport and Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy.
Prime Minister will also attend a public event, along with Katarina Mathernova, Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.
Photo: gov.md
Politics
Promo-LEX about Maia Sandu’s UN speech: The president must insist on appointing a rapporteur to monitor the situation of human rights in Transnistria
The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, pays an official visit to New York, USA, between September 21-22. There, she participates in the work of the United Nations General Assembly. According to a press release of the President’s Office, the official will deliver a speech at the tribune of the United Nations.
In this context, the Promo-LEX Association suggested the president to request the appointment of a special rapporteur in order to monitor the situation of human rights in the Transnistrian region. According to Promo-LEX, the responsibility for human rights violations in the Transnistrian region arises as a result of the Russian Federation’s military, economic and political control over the Tiraspol regime.
“We consider it imperative to insist on the observance of the international commitments assumed by the Russian Federation regarding the withdrawal of the armed forces and ammunition from the territory of the country,” the representatives of Promo-LEX stated. They consider the speech before the UN an opportunity “to demand the observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the Russian Federation with reference to this territory which is in its full control.”
“It is important to remember about the numerous cases of murder, torture, ill-treatment, forced enlistment in illegal military structures, the application of pseudo-justice in the Transnistrian region, all carried out under the tacit agreement of the Russian Federation. These findings stem from dozens of rulings and decisions issued by the European Court of Human Rights, which found that Russia is responsible for human rights violations in the region.”
The association representatives expressed their hope that the president of the country would give priority to issues related to the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region and would call on relevant international actors to contribute to guaranteeing fundamental human rights and freedoms throughout Moldova.
They asked Maia Sandu to insist on the observance of the obligation to evacuate the ammunition and the military units of the Russian Federation from the territory of the Republic of Moldova, to publicly support the need for the Russian Federation to implement the ECtHR rulings on human rights violations in the Transnistrian region, and to request the appointment of an UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur to monitor the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova.
**
The Promo-LEX Association concluded that 14 out of 25 actions planned within the National Action Plan for the years 2018–2022 concerning respecting human rights in Transnistria were not carried out by the responsible authorities.
The association expressed its concern and mentioned that there are a large number of delays in the planned results. “There is a lack of communication and coordination between the designated institutions, which do not yet have a common vision of interaction for the implementation of the plan.”
Promo-LEX requested the Government of the Republic of Moldova to re-assess the reported activities and to take urgent measures, “which would exclude superficial implementation of future activities and increase the level of accountability of the authorities.”
Photo: peacekeeping.un.org
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