How could the Iranian election be rigged? Learning from George Bush perhaps.
Private Eye explains
Since Ahmadinejad became president four years ago, some not so subtle shifts have taken place. Early in office he culled officials – ambassadors, provincial governors – and replaced them with his chums. And no one has been closer to the president than Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi, a shady “senior adviser” who also served for a year in 2006-07 as deputy interior minister for political affairs, a post with overall responsibility for managing elections and appointing the representatives of the ministry for poll supervision.
Mr Samareh-Hashemi has known Ahmadinejad since 1976, and with his close relationship to both the Revolutionary Guards and the intelligence services, Mr Samareh-Hashemi had no difficulty finding recruits. Following his orders at the ministry since last year has been the interior minister Sadeq Mahsouli, whose own total impartiality is guaranteed by… a close friendship with the president that goes back to university days around 30 years ago.
Just to make sure everything was above board, Mr Samareh-Hashemi resigned as a “special adviser” when the presidential election began, and went to run Mr Ahmadinejad’s campaign headquarters instead.
The three candidates challenging Mr Ahmadinejad often found their representatives were not allowed into polling stations or the counting. Some places where Mir Hossein Mousavi was expected to do well ran short of ballot papers.
No wonder the "people’s" will was irresistible.
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