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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Moderate ahead in race for Iran presidency

Google – AFP, Mohammad Davari and Mitra Amiri (AFP), 15 June 2013

Hassan Rowhani casts his vote at a polling station in Tehran on June 14,
2013 (AFP, Atta Kenare)

TEHRAN — Moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani, bolstered by a late surge in support from suppressed Iranian reformists, was leading the race on Saturday to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president, initial election results showed.

With 36.6 percent of ballots counted, Rowhani had 50 percent of the vote, more than three times as many as his nearest rival, conservative Tehran mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf on 15 percent, said the interior ministry.

Under Iranian law, any candidate must clear a threshold of 50 percent plus one vote to avoid having to face the second-placed candidate in a run-off, which would be held on June 21.

More than 50.5 million Iranians were eligible to vote to find a successor to Ahmadinejad, who after serving two consecutive terms was constitutionally barred from standing for office again.

And voters reportedly turned out in massive numbers for Friday's election, with Rowhani benefitting from the withdrawal this week of the only moderate candidate Mohammad Reza Aref.

Graphic showing economic and social
indicators for Iran (AFP graphic)
Aref, a former first vice president, pulled out of the race on Tuesday at the urging of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, who then threw his weight behind the 64-year-old moderate cleric.

Rowhani, a former top nuclear negotiator who has vowed to mend Iran's ties with the international community, garnered nearly 6,049,655 votes from 12,091,699 ballots counted by 12:00 pm (0730 GMT), the interior ministry said on Saturday.

Rowhani led talks with world powers over Iran's controversial nuclear ambitions under Khatami's presidency.

During his tenure, in 2003, the Islamic republic agreed to suspend uranium enrichment. It was restarted after Ahmadinejad first became president in 2005.

Iran has been at loggerheads with world powers over its nuclear ambitions, which the West suspects is aimed at developing atomic weapons. The stand-off has resulted in the imposition of harsh economic sanctions and Tehran's international isolation.

While campaigning, Rowhani promised to move to ease those sanctions, which have led to severe economic pain in the country.

Inflation is raging at more than 30 percent, the Iranian currency, the rial, has lost nearly 70 percent of its value, and unemployment is rising.

On the votes counted so far, Rowhani is followed by Qalibaf with 15 percent; ex-commander of the Revolutionary Guards Mohsen Rezai with 12.5 percent; top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili with 11.5 percent. All three hail from conservative camps.

Jalili, Qalibaf and ex-former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, another candidate who is behind with only six percent of the votes so far, are all considered close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Rowhani, who boasts of close relations with moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, also touts his relation with Khamenei, who has final decision on all key state issues, including the nuclear programme.

Iranian clergymen wait to vote in presidential
 elections at a polling station in the holy
 city of Qom, on June 14, 2013 (AFP,
Seda Ravandi)
Rowhani represented Khamenei in the Supreme National Security Council, Iran' top securitybody, where he also served as its secretary for 16 years until 2005.

In the run-up to the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad in 2009, official election results were quickly released. But in this campaign, counting of the votes has proved to be time consuming.
Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said early on Saturday that his electoral staff would not "compromise accuracy for speed".

Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for the Guardians Council electoral watchdog, said late Friday that "no violation" had been reported whatsoever across Iran.

Ahmadinejad's re-election in 2009 sparked massive anti-regime street protests after his opponents and two reformist candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi alleged wide-scale voting fraud.

Those protests, stifled by a brutal regime crackdown, led to the eventual detention under house arrest of Mousavi and Karroubi, and a widespread suppression of reformists.

Rowhani's surge in the campaign came after Khatami publically endorsed him, asking all his supporters to vote for the moderate candidate.

Khatami's endorsement also gave birth to an online movement, with social networkers urging abstentionists not to waste their votes this time around.

"I will vote for Rowhani, even though I do not know him at all and did not want to vote until yesterday," said a man named Ali on his Facebook page.

"I will vote because the consensus of those wanting to save Iran is on Rowhani."

Other net surfers have adopted Rowhani's official colour -- purple -- and his symbol of a key to open the door to solutions for Iran's problems.
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"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa, Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)  

“…  I want you to watch some countries. I don't have a clock [this statement is Kryon telling us that there is no time frame on his side of the veil, only potentials]. I'll just tell you, it's imminent [in Spirit's timing, this could mean as soon as a decade]. I want you to watch some countries carefully for changes. You're going to be seeing changes that are obvious, and some that are not obvious [covert or assumptive]. But the obvious ones you will see sooner than not - Cuba, Korea [North], Iran, of course, and Venezuela. I want you to watch what happens when they start to realize that they don't have any more allies on Earth! Even their brothers who used to support them in their hatred of some are saying, "Well, perhaps not anymore. It doesn't seem to be supporting us anymore. "Watch the synchronicities that are occurring. The leaders who have either died or are going to in the next year or so will take with them the old ways. Watch what happens to those who take their place, and remember these meetings where I described these potentials to you. …”


North Korea 'to allow Kaesong managers back'
China calls for denuclearization of Korean Peninsula
Pyongyang delegation's trip to China a 'big gesture'

A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“….. Here is the prediction: China will turn North Korea loose soon. The alliance will dissolve, or become stale. There will be political upheaval in China. Not a coup and not a revolution. Within the inner circles of that which you call Chinese politics, there will be a re-evaluation of goals and monetary policy. Eventually, you will see a break with North Korea, allowing still another dictator to fall and unification to occur with the south. ….”

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