Sunday, March 16, 2008

NEWS)))))))

Nationwide boycott of Election in Iran Polling stations were deserted on the Election Day
According to reports from Tehran and many other cities, polling stations were deserted and the number of voters hardly reached five in many stations in the first three hours.The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran’s network and social headquarters inside Iran reported from 25,000 polling stations throughout yesterday. There were 45,075 polling stations across Iran. According to reports from Iran, the call by the PMOI to boycott elections was widely supported by people. In a nationwide campaign over the past two months which started by distribution of millions of leaflets and dispatch of emails, a number of supporters of the Iranian Resistance have been arrested. Following are excerpts of reports from Tehran: Reformers purged as Iranians go to polls. Telegraph-13/03/2008--Anyone aspiring to join Iran’s parliament must be screened by the Council of Guardians, a committee of hardline clerics. Few people on the streets of Tehran express any enthusiasm for the election. 'I won’t vote,' said one 25-year-old student at Azad University.'I don’t agree with those who rule this country and I don’t trust them. The situation will get worse and worse no matter who wins the election.' Associated France Press reported on Friday that the US State Department said Friday that 'in essence the results are cooked' in Iran’s elections because voters are not given a full choice. 'It certainly is one that does not give the Iranian people the full slate of choices they deserve,' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters when asked if the election could be fair. 'In essence, the results, whatever they may be, and whatever the processes are, and how they are judged on election day, in essence the results are cooked,' McCormack said. Only a handful of voters showed up at many polling stations in Tehran on Friday in Iran’s parliament elections, a sign of frustration with a vote that hard-liners allied with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are expected to dominate. CNN Reporting from Tehran :The election is expected to secure another victory for conservatives. The battle is among the friends in ruling party. An Iranian man: It is the fight between supporters of Ahmadinejad and opponents of Ahmadinejad within the conservative current. A woman: If we vote or not, the hardliners will be elected. The majority will not vote.

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The Washington Times published an interview with Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on parliamentary elections in Iran. “The international community has to recognize that this election has no legitimacy whatsoever. The only real long-term hope is democratic change in Iran led by the people and by the resistance to end the mullahs’ regime,” said Mrs. Rajavi in her telephone interview from Paris.The following is the full text of the interview: Source: The Washingtion Times, March 14, 2008. The Washington Times reported asked: How do you see Iran’s parliamentary elections unfolding? Mrs Rajavi replied: [Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei very much needs to tighten his grip on power, and he very much needs a parliament subordinate to President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad. That’s why this will be an engineered election, with a plan prepared in advance by Khamenei on who can run, who will be elected, and who will be speaker.Q: How is the regime doing that? A: Through the Ministry of the Interior, the Revolutionary Guard Corps and provincial officials, it has already been determined who can run and who can win. The regime is even using the ID cards of deceased people as one way to claim a falsely high turnout. Q: Are there divisions within the conservative ruling regime? A: The regime is constantly facing internal defections and dissension at all levels. For example, [former top nuclear negotiator] Ali Larijani, who has clashed with the president, was not allowed to run for a seat in Tehran and had to campaign for a seat in Qom. The outcome of the election will be a win for Khamenei and Ahmadinejad, but it will be a more fragile, extremist regime. Q: What should the United States and the West do? A: The international community has to recognize that this election has no legitimacy whatsoever. The only real long-term hope is democratic change in Iran led by the people and by the resistance to end the mullahs’ regime.

Workers protests against Iranian regime in Tehran, Qom and Tabas
The workers protested against the regime’s predatory and suppressive policies by staging strikes, sit-in and gatherings in Tehran, Qom and Tabas.In Tehran, the workers of Pars Minoo Industrial Factory went on strike for the second consecutive day and gathered in the factory yard. They asked for payment of their postponed salaries and announced they would continue their strike until they achieve their demands. In Qom, the workers of Hamid Porcelain Factory rallied in street to protest the closure of the factory and not paying their last 6 months salaries. The protesting workers clashed with the suppressive State Security Force (SSF) agents who tried to prevent them from demonstrating. In Tabas, the northeastern Iranian city, the railway workers staged a strike in protest to not receiving their salaries for four months; they said this is the umpteenth time that the rail way workers in Tabas had protested for their unpaid salaries.


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Iranian regime’s “moral enforcer”, who led a crackdown on women failing to adhere to Iran’s strict Islamic dress codes, has been arrested in a Tehran brothel, it was reported last week. The Sunday times reported on Sat. That Brigadier General Ali Reza Zarei, 53, the Tehran police chief and a confidant of the president, was said to have been with six prostitutes when he was detained by members of his own force two weeks ago.He has been removed from his post and put on bail, according to the Iranian Farda website. The site is understood to be close to Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, the former police chief who is now mayor of Tehran and is expected to challenge Ahmadinejad for the presidency next year.There has been no mention of the case in the official Iranian media but a spokesman for the justice department admitted last week that an unnamed senior official had been arrested.The Shahab news site, which is also linked to opponents of Ahmadinejad, said it was believed that up to 60 hours of videotape featuring the general and the prostitutes had been confiscated by his officers.Zarei - who was in charge of the programme for the “moralisation” of women - now faces possible prosecution.