Iran exercises Democracy while US uses pretense of Democracy to Steal Mideast Oil

Iran’s stunning victory against Western regimes
16 June, 2013 – By Finian Cunningham – PressTV

The Iranian people have won. They have withstood the bullying of Western regimes, including the threats of war, to demonstrate that Iran is a democracy of immense civility. The Iranian people have won the argument and the cause for truth in the eyes of the world. It is now up to the Western regimes to fundamentally change their policy towards Iran and to treat the Iranian people with the democratic respect that they deserve.”
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Iran’s 11th presidential election since the Islamic Revolution 34 years ago produced a stunning victory. With nearly 73 percent of the electorate turning out last Friday to vote for six presidential candidates perhaps the real winner to emerge was Iran – its people and its democratic system.

Hassan Rohani takes pride of place as the new president of Iran having won over 50 percent of the votes. Mr. Rohani’s election surprised many observers. What his triumph and the turnout in the polls indicate is that Iran has a free and fair democracy, which has a massive mandate from the people.

Six candidates had free and equal access to Iranian media to present their manifestos, and the people then decided; as it turns out they decided for a surprise winner.

Contrast that vibrant and free exercise in people power with the lassitude of many Western states, where voter turnout is often as low as 50 percent; and where the electorate is presented with an empty “choice” between two candidates or parties, all controlled and vetted by the corporate ruling elite. The United States of America is perhaps the most salient exponent of this moribund and oxymoronic state of Western so-called democracy.

In the US, no-one can run for election unless they are bankrolled by billions of dollars. The top one percent of corporate and financial rulers makes the shortlist of presidential candidates from which the electorate is permitted to “choose”. The US system is the antithesis of democracy and that’s why almost half of the electorate – more than 100 million people – don’t even bother going to the polling stations. They know it is a waste of time and vote – because the result is pre-determined by the ruling elite; and that’s why there is never any change in America’s plundering, criminal policies at home and abroad.

The other noteworthy aspect of the Iranian election was the high turnout among young people. Many of these younger voters would not have been born during the Islamic revolution of 1979; many more of the voters would not have had personal experience of the horrible US-backed dictatorship of the Shah (1953-79). That means the active participation of the younger Iranian generation in the latest election is a further sign of genuine popular support for the Islamic revolution, the constitution, the electoral system and the country’s leadership under Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. …more