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| Home Front: Politix |
| Bush lashes out at Iranian elections |
| 2005-06-16 |
| On the eve of Iran's presidential election, President Bush said the voting has been designed to keep power in the hands of a few rulers "through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy." "The Iranian people deserve a genuinely democratic system in which elections are honest — and in which their leaders answer to them instead of the other way around," Bush said in a statement released by the White House Thursday. "And to the Iranian people, I say: As you stand for your own liberty, the people of America stand with you." "Iran is ruled by men who suppress liberty at home and spread terror across the world," Bush said. "Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy. The June 17th presidential elections are sadly consistent with this oppressive record." Some 500 people demonstrated in front of the main radio and television building in Tehran Thursday, calling on Iranians to boycott the polls because the process is unfair. But other reformists have urged against disillusionment, warning that a boycott could pave the way for a totalitarian state and help hard-liners consolidate their grip on power. Bush said Iranians are heirs to a great civilization and deserve a government that honors their ideals with a free press and economy, freedom of religion and assembly and an independent judiciary. "Today, the Iranian regime denies all these rights," Bush said. "It brutalizes its people and denies them their liberty." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Absolutely. |
| Posted by: bgrebel9 2005-06-16 22:55 |
| #1 Good for Bush. No doubt he will be denouced by the EUrowimps and a few dhimmis. |
| Posted by: mhw 2005-06-16 16:42 |