By Sophie Bordbar

Nearly two weeks after the Ministry of Interior announced that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the June 12 presidential election in a landside, protests by angry voters who allege election fraud continue. According to the Ministry, Ahmadinejad received 63 percent of the votes, but his victory is contested by Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, two reformist candidates who stood against him. The third candidate, Mohsen Rezai, a conservative, has also lodged complaints about election irregularities.

By Geneive Abdo
Iran Analyst, The Century Foundation

The basij militias may have crushed the historic street protests against Iran’s election results, but Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei now faces a more pressing problem: how to prevent a potent coalition of political elites arrayed against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from destabilizing the entire Islamic political system – and undercutting his own power, too.

By Masih Alinejad

Editor’s Note:  Masih Alinejad originally wrote this article as a column for Etemad Melli a reformist Iranian newspaper headed by presidential candidate Mehdi Karroub . Her editor declined to publish it for fear that the baton carriers would descend on the newspaper office.

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Iran 2009 Presidential Election Results