The Election in Iran

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June 24, 2009

On June 12th, 2009, Iran held elections to chose who their next president would be. The two main people running for office were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was running for reelection, and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who had previously served as Prime Minister.

At the end of the election day, it was announced that Ahmadinejad had won by about two-thirds of the vote. However, many people were suspicious of this news. While the country’s official announcement proclaimed Ahmadinejad the winner, lots of people in Iran and in other countries believed that the election might have been conducted unfairly and that either the votes were improperly counted or rigged. 

Lots of citizens in Iran began to protest. This lead to violence as the protests escalated and the police tried to restrain them. 

The violence did not end quickly since the protesting citizens continued to feel dissatisfied by the response from their government. Mousavi as well as many citizens requested that the election be redone, but Ahmadinejad and other Iranian government forces have been resistant to meeting this request.

As government officials in Iran continue to consider how to proceed and as citizens continue to voice their opinion, the situation is likely to continue changing. It’s hard to know what will happen, and whether or not Iran will try to “redo” the election.

Over the next few days or weeks, Iran will continue trying to determine what to do. In other countries around the world, governments and citizens are now reaching out to help Iran in their decision-making process.

If you feel strongly about the situation, write a letter to someone in your government to tell them what you think they should do!