Iran Votes In Moderate President

From the Daily Mail:

Newly elected president of Iran Hasan Rowhani called for 'rationality and moderation' after he won more than 50 per cent of the vote.

Thousands of supporters danced in the streets after Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad confirmed his victory earlier this evening.

Rowhani was the lone moderate candidate in the race and supported by reformists in a race that once appeared solidly in the hands of Tehran's Islamic establishment.
In his first statement after the results were announced, Rowhani said that 'a new opportunity has been created ... for those who truly respect democracy, interaction and free dialogue.'

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The vote brings an end to the eight-year era of the combative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose 2009 re-election was steeped in controversy.

Candidates seen as hard-line loyalists included current nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Khamenei adviser Ali Akbar Velayati.

Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, another conservative candidate who had been running far behind in second place, conceded defeat.


Rowhani has controversially vowed to follow a policy of detente and interaction with the outside world.

A victory by former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani is seen as a setback for Iran's Islamic establishment.

I truly hope that he is a reformer. However, there are many types of reformers, and consequences to those that push for reform. Will Rowhani be a Gorbachev, who intended only mild reforms, but was fated to see the decline and collapse of the old system? Is he someone that preaches "reform," but in fact hasn't the ability and/or desire to enact reform? Will he be challenged and overthrown by hardliners in the Iranian military or Revolutionary Guard? We will see, probably very quickly.