Tehran, IRAN, July 15, 2009

Back in 1978 when things were getting dicey in Tehran, I remember every time President Carter made a  public statement about Iran, tensions increased. The Iranian public gets all the news; much more than the American public, and they are very sensitive to the words of the American president and top government officials.

 

Now, in 2009, when President Obama makes comments like, "We also say we're not going to just wait indefinitely and allow for the development of a nuclear weapon, the breach of international treaties, and wake up one day and find ourselves in a much worse situation and unable to act," And the Washington Post writes, "He said that he and others had sought only the strong condemnation that the G8 delivered and not for the summit to embrace new sanctions against Iran, despite news reports to the contrary. But it remained unclear what further pressure could be exerted on Tehran, which has rejected international demands to suspend a nuclear program the West believes is for developing weapons but which Tehran says is for electricity generation." 

What are the Iranians to think? How should they react to the words of the President of the United States? I experienced this 30 years ago and see it happening again.

There seem to be dozens of daily newspapers published in Tehran. The news stands which can be found in almost every block on the main boulevards have crowds around them every morning checking out the headlines. There are perhaps 6 local television stations giving hourly news broadcasts. People with satellite television get US, French, Russian, Japanese, Indian, all the Arab channels, plus dozens more. After the election BBC, CNN were blocked as their news was considered over the top because they only presented one side of the story.

 

The difference with this 2009 election is that it has become an electronic experiment; part of the new world-wide information explosion through Internet and television. News is instant and many times it suddenly becomes OK for it not to be official or its sources confirmed. Someone said, "It doesn't matter if it is true or not, just the fact that it's out there!"

 

For the first time the Iranian election had a series of live, television debates. The four candidates went each night, two by two, face to face for an hour and a half, changing until they had all faced each other. A very neutral moderator introduced them, asked a simple question, "What would you do if you become President?", and let them go at it. Each man got 20 minutes plus then the other got 20 minutes to rebut. Never in my watching politics have I seen so much openness and detail about governing, about the government and the legislature, the budget, the military, their past achievements and accusations of failure or corruption. It was all laid out and became uninterrupted, breath-taking drama in front of close-up cameras. This was real, in-depth politics like no one had ever seen before.

 

The Iranian nation watched it all, night after night for nine nights. The debates didn't finish until midnight. I was reassured that, "Yes, everyone is watching." Fortunately for me, Press-TV broadcast every moment with instant translation in English. There was no studio audience, just the two candidates with the utterly neutral moderator sitting between them; who never rolled his eyes or made an expression of any kind. The candidates were not allowed to criticize one of the other candidates if they were not present. If they did, the absent, criticized man got additional television time to answer. The fairness of it all was amazing to me.

 

When the television broadcast was over, thousands of people came out into the streets to demonstrate; marching, chanting, singing, waving banners and flags, supporting their favorite candidate. Being an old person, I was already asleep and learned about the late night activities in the morning.

 

Every morning the country discussed all that was said the night before, loudly and sometimes with great emotion. The rallies began and thousands became tens of thousands. They appeared highly organized with colors expressed in banners, clothing, hats, posters, and giant vinyl billboards that appeared overnight. Blocks of blank, white walls were also provided that quickly collected posters, graffiti on top of more poster and comments on top of more each day. The signs and banners got bigger and more profuse. The city became a giant election event. The gatherings drew hundreds of thousands and the days went on. Television did not allow advertising but instead ran promos about the responsibility of voting, about the schedules, the polling locations, history of past elections. The rallies were televised and those speeches were broadcast; each candidate getting about equal exposure.

 

Because of the debates, the reactions were getting stronger and the supporters more excited and enthusiastic.  This included rallies in other major cities of Iran as well. Each candidate got a 30 minute personal television interview on separate days as part of the process.

 

Then on the day before the election, June 11, everything stopped. Banners and posters were removed, vehicles were scraped clean of stickers and colored ribbons. The prelude to voting was quiet and deliberate. The next morning lines formed early. Television crews were out showing the lines of voters as they moved into the polling locations. Foreign press went to the areas where some people spoke English and missed the huge population in the south of the city. People were quiet and reserved, their faces reflecting the seriousness of this process. The lines were very long and people sometimes had to wait hours to get in. So many people turned out that the hours were extended to accommodate as many as possible. 

 

The ballot only had four names on it, so counting would be simple and fast. In order to vote, a citizen had to present his or her National ID card, Birth Certificate, and apply a fingerprint on the ballot stub for permanent record of the vote. In each station there were 10 persons representing State Department, Police for security of the box, trustees of the neighborhood, and the Judiciary representative, plus representatives of the candidates if they were available. There were 45,000 ballot boxes. There were also 3,000 portable ballot boxes that went out to the nomads, home-bound, prisons, and backup for over-crowded polling places. There was an average of about 1,000 votes in each of the boxes which also helped reach an early count.

 

That's what I observed up through election day. I did notice that the candidate, Mousavi , announced himself as winner before the polls had closed and the counting had started.

 

Next I will deal with what happened.