This is the main slogan in the streets of Tehran from what we hear from youtube uploads captured by mobile phones. With cell phones and sms messaging system disrupted and disconnected by Iranian telecoms together with closing (again) of social networking and reformist campaign websites, it is incredible how much information is shared. Iran spent the second day in street protests and we just hope for the safety of our friends who -like ourselves- are still in shock and disbelief of the "game of numbers" they are played into.
Mousavi must be in a very hard position. He in one hand, feels the obligation to denounce violence. Not only to protect his supporters from government forces but also to make sure that the conservatives wouldn't be able to tag him with their typical mark of "aligned with enemies of nation". On the other hand, he feels the obligation to fight for those who voted for him.
The election results look so fabricated. They could as well be compared to balance sheets of a bankrupt corporate if were in the business world. On the night of the election, someone was smart enough to plot incremental votes counts of Ahmadinejad and Mousavi as they were being reported. If you plot them in a simple XY graph, you can easily fit a line to the points! This is completely impossible considering the demographics of the country. Rival candidates lost to Ahmadinejad even in their home towns and one of the candidates got a ridiculous number of votes that is less than a number of people working for his campaign organization.
I was working this weekend and could not go to the protests in front of the Iranian embassy in The Hague. The embassy now reported the vote count in The Netherlands and Mousavi was the winner here with a clear margin. Around the world, Iranians are protesting in front of Iranian political offices. Tomorrow, Mousavi has called for a demonstration in one of the major streets of Tehran. Hope they remain safe.
We had rough days and after a weekend without a free mind, I really feel like a bag of broken China!