Iranian Election Goes Pear Shaped

There are some pretty good indications of vote fraud, at least according to Juan Cole.

He thinks that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is in control of the Interior Ministry, massively juiced his vote at the expense of his nearest rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Cole's argument, and I find it persuasive, is that the vote tallies are almost completely lacking the regional, ethnic, and class divides that have heretofore been a fixture in Iranian elections.

The results appear to be a crude and hurried fraud, which may very well because clerical authorities expected Ahmadinejad to win outright, and were caught flat-footed.