Moderate's re-election a warning for Ahmadinejad

Source: The Guardian

10am
Moderate's re-election a warning for Ahmadinejad

Agencies
Thursday May 10, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The mayor of Tehran has been re-elected in a vote seen as a victory for
moderate conservatives in Iran and a sign of waning support for the
country's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf is considered a likely rival to Mr
Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential election.

"This is an important event. It shows that conservatives are distancing
themselves from radicals headed by Ahmadinejad," said Saeed Laylaz, an
Iranian political analyst and columnist, yesterday.

Mr Qalibaf is a conservative who backs the Islamic regime, but also a
pragmatist who has stressed efficiency over hardline ideology in running
Tehran. The mayor's re-election is regarded as a reflection of pragmatic
conservatives' increasing discontent with Mr Ahmadinejad's harsh anti-
Western rhetoric and his failure to improve Iran's weak economy.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2076428,00.html

The USA needs to leave them the hell alone! That is, stop the warmongering rhetoric so the people will not be AFRAID and mistakenly vote in right wingers ... not unlike what many of our fellow Americans did after 9-11. :shrug: