“Many of the officials in the Rafsanjani government and many of your officials started work with nothing and ended up billionaires…How many of my ministers have become billionaires in the last four years?”
– President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a presidential debate with reformist challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi

“Mr. Ahmadinejad provides a collection of data that are certainly wrong. Either he is provided ‘wrong’ information, or he himself intentionally provides wrong information.”
– Reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi during a presidential debate with incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

The 2009 presidential debates in Iran, which, according to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, were watched by 70 million people in Iran and across the globe, were unprecedented in the level of attacks levied by the candidates against their rivals.  Ahmadinejad accused his current competitors, as well as former president Mohammad Khatami and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, of extreme corruption and nepotism.  He further alleged that Rafsanjani, Khatami and Mousavi comprised an elite cabal that was actively working behind the scenes to undermine his administration.  His attacks even extended to Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Mousavi, who has become something of an icon for women during this election, accusing her of not sitting for her entrance exams to obtain her academic degrees.  Rahnavard struck back by threatening to sue the president if he did not apologize for his remarks.

Ahmadinejad also countered criticism of his economic management, which has become a primary election issue.  He claimed that inflation was at 14 percent and on a trajectory to fall to 10 percent by the end of his term, that unemployment had decreased during his term and that pension funds had soared.  Both Mousavi and Karroubi took issue with his statistics, citing, among other data, a report released by the Central Bank of Iran that put inflation at 25 percent.  Karroubi, in not so veiled remarks, went so far as to accuse the president of lying to the people about the true state of the economy.  The president responded in a speech on June 10 in Tehran by accusing his rivals of using biased information derived from Zionist forces.

Despite the political mudslinging during and following the contentious debates, Ahmadinejad appears not to have soured on debates as a whole. According to PressTV, he has said that if re-elected, he would invite U.S. President Barack Obama to participate in a debate.

“Tens of millions of people in the country and outside watched as he [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] lied and violated laws against religion, morality and fairness, and as he had targeted the achievements of our Islamic system.”
– Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in an open letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, June 9

In response to the allegations levied against him by Ahmadinejad during the debates, Rafsanjani – who ran against Ahmadinejad in 2005 – published an open letter to the Supreme Leader criticizing the president and calling upon him to recant his statements.   In the letter, Rafsanjani accuses the president of undermining the revolution and of speaking against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.  Ahmadinejad had claimed that his administration was the only one since the revolution to have worked in support of the nation, appearing to implicitly criticized Khamenei who served as president from 1981 to 1989.

Rafsanjani also sought to counter the president’s allegations that he is working in concert with current presidential candidates to undermine Ahmadinejad.  He reiterated that none of the candidates had sought his counsel, nor had he officially endorsed any of the competitors.  However, in a shift from his public neutrality during the election, Rafsanjani did explicitly indicate his opposition to the Ahmadinejad administration, stating that “the continuation of the present state of affairs is not in the interest of the political system and the country.”

He ended his letter by calling upon the Supreme Leader to ensure that the elections are conducted freely and fairly, reflecting the concern among many reformists that the elections may be manipulated behind the scenes in favor of Ahmadinejad.

Mesbah Yazdi’s Decree to Rig Votes
–headline in Rooz, June 9

“Observers and polling officers are entrusted with the vote of the people, which they must safeguard.”
- statement released by the Guardian Council on June 9

According to several sources, Ministry of Interior employees published an open letter highlighting serious concerns that preparations for vote manipulation were being made.  In the letter they reference a fatwa – which based upon the description of the cleric appears to have been delivered by Mesbah Yazdi, a hard-line cleric and spiritual advisor to Ahmadinejad – declaring that Iranians have an obligation to defend the revolution and appearing to sanction electoral fraud in support of Ahmadinejad.  Ministry employees further indicate that as many as 2.6 million extra unaccounted for ballots have been printed and that the number of electoral stamps – used to certify counting results – produced is twice the number of polling stations.

In response to ongoing concerns that the elections will be rigged, the regime, which has a strong interest in portraying the elections as free and fair, is allowing for additional monitoring of election day procedures.  In addition to the Guardian Council Election Monitoring Committees, the General Inspection Office, which falls under the judiciary, and candidate representatives will also observe the polls.  Candidate representatives, according to the head of the election administration office, will be allowed to monitor all phases of election day, including voting and ballot counting.

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Published on June 11, 2009