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Source: http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8239
The Goose, the Gander, and Iran
(American Spectator) Akbar Atri - In Iran the government never seeks the consent of the governed, the people. It stacks the deck. While we have regularly scheduled elections, the Guardian Council, a committee of Muslim clerics - mullahs - decides which of the registered candidates may stand and which will be ruled off the ballot. And this unelected body has veto power over the elected government's actions. Eight years ago our growing student democratic movement was assured by then-presidential candidate Khatami that he would institute a number of democratic reforms if elected. They supported him. He won, but now, eight years later as his second and last term ends, the reforms have yet to take place. Election for a new president will take place June 17, but the student movement is urging voters to boycott the election. (Approximately 15 million voters - 21% of those eligible - voted in the last presidential election in 2001.)