IRAN: AHMADINEJAD HAS ONE QUIP TOO MANY, PROMPTING INTERVENTION

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s penchant for loopy one-liners and unsubstantiated allegations may finally be getting the best of him. A raucous presidential debate -- featuring comments so outrageous that Ahmadinejad provoked rebukes from all across the political spectrum -- has energized the Iranian electorate, and riveted attention on the June 12 presidential vote. Turnout may end up being so large, and attention so great, that it may make it difficult to rig. That can only be bad news for the incumbent.

There are seven days now left before the presidential vote. Political apathy has characterized Iranian election cycles for almost a decade. Low voter turnout, in fact, paved Ahmadinejad’s path to power. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Intellectuals and members of the economic middle class have been especially prominent in staying away from politics since experiencing disappointment during the administration of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. But now the election is practically all that Iranians can talk about. Interest in the campaign is reaching a fever pitch.

The catalyzing event for this development was a bruising nationally-televised debate on June 3 between the two main presidential contestants: Ahmadinejad, who is bidding for a second term, and his moderate-reformist challenger, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who was a former prime minister and a confidant of the Islamic Republic’s founder, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Roughly 60 percent of Iranians tuned in to the debate, and they were treated to a 90-minute verbal brawl that at times veered between a rhetorical prize fight and a professional wrestling bout. The candor that surrounded the debate had not been evident in Iran’s political discourse since the early days of the Islamic Revolution.