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  • Documents on Democracy

Iran

When official results of Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election claimed that 63 percent of the vote had gone to incumbent Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, leaving reformist challenger Mir Hosein Musavi with only 34 percent, protests broke out throughout the country. (See the articles on pp. 5–20 above.) On June 20, Musavi issued a statement in Tehran, which is excerpted below:

The great participation in this election was, in the first degree, indebted to the efforts for creating hope and trust among the people to obtain a befitting response to the existing administrative crises and the widespread social dissatisfaction, whose accumulation can target the bedrock of the Revolution and the Regime. If this good faith and trust coming from the people are not answered by protecting their votes, or the people cannot react in a civil and peaceful way to defend their rights, there will be dangerous pathways ahead, responsibility for which lies with those who can't stand peaceful behaviors.

If the high volume of cheating and vote manipulation that has put a fire to the foundations of people's trust is itself introduced as the proof and evidence of the lack of fraud, the republicanism of the regime will be slaughtered and the idea of the incompatibility of Islam and republicanism would be practically proven. Such a fate will make two groups happy: 1) those who arrayed their troops against the Imam [Khomeini] from the beginning of the Revolution and assumed that the Islamic government is the same as Tyranny of the Rightful and, in their false surmise, want to bring people to Heaven by force, and 2) those who, by claiming to defend the rights of the people, basically consider religion and Islam to be blockers of the realization of republicanism.…

Now by endorsing what happened in the elections, the government officials have taken responsibility for it, and have set limits on the results of any further investigation and auditing so that such an investigation should not annul the election or change its results—even though [End Page 178] the number of votes cast in 170 voting centers has exceeded the number of people eligible to vote there. In this situation, we are being told to follow up on our objection with the Guardian Council, but this council has proven its lack of neutrality in its acts before, during, and after the election. But a prerequisite for any fair arbitration is observing impartiality.

I still strongly believe that the request for annulment of this election and a renewed election is a given right and it should be investigated impartially by a board trusted nationally, instead of rejecting the possibility of any positive results from the investigation beforehand.…

As I look at the scene, I see that it has been set to achieve more than just forcing an unwanted government on the nation, it is set to achieve a new type of political life in the country. As a companion who has seen the beauty of your Green Wave of participation, I will never allow any-body's life to be endangered because of my actions. At the same time, I stand by my firm belief of this election being null and void, and insist on reclaiming people's rights, and in spite of the little power I possess, I believe that your motivation and creativity can still result in following up your legitimate rights in new and civil guises. Be confident that I will stand by your side at all times.

Honduras

On June 28, President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales was deposed and exiled by the Honduran military. The new de facto government, led by Roberto Micheletti, claimed that Zelaya had been ousted because he had tried to extend his power unconstitutionally. On July 4, in response to the political crisis, the Organization of American States (OAS) issued a resolution suspending Honduras from the organization. Excerpts appear below:

The General Assembly,

Deeply concerned about the worsening of the current political crisis in the Republic of Honduras resulting from the coup d'état against the constitutional government of President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, as well as his arbitrary detention and expulsion from the country...

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