Iran's Election - A View From the Ground

The streets of Tehran have devolved into violence since the the results of the highly disputed Iranian election were announced on Friday. Hundreds of protesters who believe the election was rigged in favor of the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been arrested, injured or killed.

Today, thousands of Iranians have gathered in a state-sponsored counterprotest "designed to demand punishment for the rioters from Monday's clashes."

The United States' response has been limited. President Obama's former rival John McCain has called on him to declare the election 'a sham,' but Politics Daily's own Carl M. Cannon has argued that there are no good options for Obama with regards to Iran.

News coming out of Iran has been somewhat limited by the state's strict rules on foreign reporters, which prevent the sending of photos and video. Visas granted to journalists to cover the election are not being extended even as the protests continue. A Canadian reporter was briefly arrested while covering the protests.

Our partner, the international news site GlobalPost has had reporters in Tehran, Qom and elsewhere, filing reports by whatever means they can. Below are excerpts from their eyewitness accounts of the tense situation on the ground. Click on the links to read the full articles. You can see the latest GlobalPost Iran coverage here.

Iason Athanasiadis, took part in yesterday's mass protest in Tehran's Revolution Square:

Thousands and thousands of people marched, often in absolute silence to demonstrate their alienation from their government, at other times shouting "We are Mousavi's Green Army."

There were young, cute girls sporting Green Revolution chic headscarves and bandanas alongside chador-clad matrons swathed in all-encompassing chadors out of which just a single unpowdered nose peeked.

A few steps away, a young girl wearing the kind of colored scarf that might have earned her a warning and harrassment on the street by the morality brigade, approached a policeman and, her voice dripping sarcasm, asked: "Sir, can I borrow your gun for tonight? Even your baton is enough. Oooooh, look how long and hard it is ... You won't even give me that? Then how about just your peaked cap?"

And with that she walked back into the crowd, smiling.

Iason Athanasiadis, on how the noose began tightening on foreign media in Tehran:

Reports continued to trickle in. Just as worrisome as news that paramilitaries had entered TehranUniversity's student dormitories and beaten up students was news that foreign journalists were being harassed and asked to leave the country. "Their permits are no longer valid, even if still unexpired," an Iranian official told me.

A spokesman for the Swedish network SVT, Geronimo Akerlund, was reported as saying that their reporter, Lena Petersson, had been asked to "leave Iran as soon as possible because the elections are over." European Union embassy officials said that they couldn't protect journalists who are arrested by the Iranian authorities, bringing to mind the case of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, whose American nationality was of no help when she was recently arrested and charged with spying here.

Iason Athanasiadis, in Tehran, on how ordinary Iranians are coping with the unrest:

People go about their daily business against a backdrop of disrupted city life: scorched tarmac, overturned and torched trash bins, bus stops bereft of glass sidings.

"I feel like that guy who was sitting in the Berlin cafe as Hitler came to power and, unlike those around him, knew that this was the end of democracy and freedom," said a 25-year-old journalist as he steered his car through the streets. "Not that we ever had freedoms and democracy here."

Iason Athanasiadis, on a wild election night drive from the holy city of Qom, to the Iranian capital:

Two friends drive at top speed towards Tehran, the Iranian capital, on the night of the 2009 Presidential elections. Both in their early 20s, they represent the Islamic Republic's so-called children of the revolution: Iranians under 30, an age group that makes up 70 percent of the population.

Both are fervent supporters of reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who has squared up to incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Islamic Republic's most crucial election.

As the car eats up the kilometers on the straight highway connecting the two cities, they take calls on their cell phones from a network of professional contacts in a bid to make sense of the conflicting information in Iran's most polarized election yet.

"Fars (a conservative news-agency) has just issued a story congratulating Ahmadinejad," one comments disbelievingly. "But the polls have not even closed yet!"

As the reality of Ahmadinejad's possible victory dawns on them, they settle into a stream of dark humor.

"If Ahmadinejad wins this then half the country will be political refugees tomorrow," sighed one.

Sharin Jaafari, an Iranian journalism student living in the U.S., on the thoughts of Iranian voters in Boston, where Mousavi carried the day:

"This year I voted for Mousavi in the hope of a new beginning. This year the campaign season seems to be very different from the previous years. With every single day that Ahmadinejad was president things got worse for the country and its people. Hopefully by electing Mousavi, we would take a step forward, even if it's a small one."

Cameron Abadi in Tehran, with on-the-ground reporting and analysis of Iran's historic election:

For many of Friday's voters - including a 91-year-old man and his 85-year-old wife who voted for Mir-Hossein Mousavi - it was the first time they bore the ink-stained fingers and stamped national identity cards that are the symbols of having voted in an Iranian election.

"I'm not a political person," said Ashkan, a student voting in North Tehran. "But, this election has become about making a bigger statement."