UNREST IN IRAN: Please HELP

Yesterday was the Iranian presidential election . I drove to Ottawa to vote. More than 85% of eligible voters voted, of which about 80% of those voted for Mousavi , that is, against current president Ahmadinejad . I actually campaigned to encourage voting, by launching Lotfan.org last weekend.Overnight however, a silent coup happens. The votes are never counted! Imaginary numbers are pushed out in the state-run TV as actuals:The first counts, from rural places, start with Ahmadinejad getting 69% of the votes. Which sounds not right, but not unrealistic for rural places.What we notice as being very very weird in our 5 hour drive back to Toronto is, as the total of votes counted goes up from 5 millions to 10, 15, 21, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30 millions, the balance doesn't change much. In fact, as facebookers and bloggers soon discovered,

Same pattern applies for other candidates, which consistently get 1% and 2% of the vote, with Mousavi and Ahmadinejad converging to a 1:2 ratio.



The first three hours, they "counted" 20 million votes, a very unusually high rate. The next three hours, only 10. Then there's silence for six hours. No one's responding. Mousavi and Karroubi are pretty much non-existent on the net and news. Karbaschi, the former Tehran mayor and Karroubi's VP stopped tweeting at 4am, saying that they have to wait to hear from Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, and he wouldn't tweet for ten hours. It's this time that bloggers find about the all made up numbers. The following "photo" of the Iran map on fire storms Facebook profile photos:





There's a freaking silence in the air. Makhmalbaf, the world-famous Iranian director who is associated with Mousavi's campaign talks to foreign media and warns about the coup. People in Iran wake up to an election lost, and life looks normal. Except that it's not. A coup is going on. Mousavi, Karroubi, Rafsanjani, and all other prominent figures are waiting for Supreme Leader's word. Election results are postponed from 8am, to 10, to noon, to 2, and to 4pm.



The results are finally out and the Supreme Leader approves the election results.



Storm of people in the street. Being shot:

The police alleging protesters of violence, but who's breaking the windshield on these cars? Well, judge yourself:

This is the start of a new era in Iran.

The videos are being uploaded and circulated widely on Facebook AS WE SPEAK. Like this, or this, or this.



Iran is a different place today.

Please HELP.

Contact: help at behdad.org