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Dear Friends:
We all have watched as violence and mass protests have erupted across Iran, reinforcing Iran's record as a police state and totalitarian regime more concerned with keeping its tight grip on power than yielding to the will of the people.
I stand with President Obama who has called for Iran to exercise restraint and for the violence to end. As chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, which is charged with monitoring elections and promoting democracy and human rights, I recently spoke out on the floor of the Senate about the deeply flawed presidential election process in Iran.
We may never know the true results of this election, given the lack of international monitoring. But what we do know is that in the last few days we have witnessed tens of thousands of Iranians raise their voices in protest to ensure that their vote meant something.
Last Friday, voters in Iran lined up in unprecedented numbers to choose their next president. I, like many others, was dismayed on Saturday to hear the ruling clerics rush to announce that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election by a large margin. President Ahmadinejad's consistent pattern of noxious remarks and his belligerent attitude inject understandable tension around the Middle East and beyond. He has used the presidential podium to instigate conflict with the international community, pursue acquisition of nuclear weapons, and spew hatred and intolerance toward Israel and the United States. I cannot say and will not say what could have been or should have been if any other candidate was elected, but there is no doubt as to Ahmadinejad's unfitness as a leader.
Equally troubling were the almost immediate reports coming from Tehran and elsewhere around Iran that there were deep flaws in this election. Elections do not equal democracy, nor do they guarantee that the will of the people will be reflected in their government. But this was not a free and fair election from the start.
In Iranian presidential elections, only a select group of candidates approved by a 12-person Council of Guardians is eligible to run. The Iranian regime, headed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei continues to severely restrict civil liberties including freedom of speech, expression, assembly, and association. Freedom to discuss ideas without threat of oppression is a fundamental human right that is essential to a government that truly reflects the will of its people. This freedom is absent in Iran.
In the last few days -- in an incredible rebuttal to the ruling powers -- tens of thousands of people have lined the streets of Tehran wanting to know that their votes were properly counted. The deliberate lack of transparency in the vote tabulation and the blatant attempts to block mass communications among citizens, particularly youth, are too glaring to ignore. Even Supreme Leader Khamenei has been forced to backtrack on his immediate approval of the results and has called for at least the appearance of a recount in some disputed areas.
Even before the presidential election took place, Iran's totalitarian regime blocked personal communications like texting and access to the Internet. Media have been either asked to leave the country or confined to Tehran. The regime's ongoing attempts to curtail communication and silence protests - often with brutal force - demonstrate the regime's fear of losing a grip on power.
Allegations of a fraudulent vote count are a symptom of a regime that has survived by mixing select elements of democracy into an authoritarian power structure that oppresses its people. On June 12, the people of Iran did not vote for the Supreme Leader of their country. Under the current system, Khamenei and his supporters will continue to dictate policy to the President of Iran, regardless of who is president.
The people of Iran want their voices to be heard and they should be assured that the world is listening. I urge those in power in Iran also to listen and implement the reforms necessary to allow the will of the people to be expressed.
Best wishes.
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