Current Events in Iran- Iranian Democracy

Iran claims that it is the most democratic country in the Middle East. On June 12, President Mahoud Ahmadinejad will be challenged by three other politicians: Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Mohsen Rezai. Those four candidates are the only four allowed on the ballot. The remaining 471 candidates who registered were ruled ineligible by the powerful Guardian Council. 42 of these politicians were women. For most people this does not express democracy. Also even more politicians may have been deterred even from registering, because they knew they would be disqualified. This shows how democracy is being limited in an unfair way. Any politician who challenged the basic tenets of the Islamic Republic is not allowed to stand even if they would receive a majority of the Iranian votes. Although it is very unlikely that these candidates would receive a lot of support they still should have the right to run. President Ahmadinejad is allowing equal air time for all candidates during the campaign. Democracy is based on free and fair elections, and since both elections of President Mohammad Khatami in 1997 and President Ahmadinejad in 2005 were unexpected, there is suspicion that the government machine will be behind President Ahmadinejad again. There is also a lot of speculation about whether or not the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij militia, and government employees like teachers, will be "encouraged" to vote for President Ahmadinejad. Iran is one of the least democratic nations. There is very little freedom of press, most newspapers support the government and Iranian TV is openly behind the President. The Internet in Iran is also heavily censored(Leyne).