Aside from the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was seeking a second four-year term, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi and Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council Mohsen Rezaee vied for votes in a closely contested election. The elections came in the midst of a public tug-of-war over Iran's future and one of the bitterest political contests in the history of the Islamic republic. Ahmadinejad, who has developed a confrontational stance against the West, was mainly challenged by Mousavi, who follows a moderate approach and promises change, prompting many to endorse his candidacy. Commenting on the meaning of yesterday's presidential election in Iran, Zaman's Mehmet Yılmaz calls attention to the fact that the election took place 30 years after the Islamic revolution in Iran, noting that the election results could reveal the direction in which the country is headed. Secondly, he believes that the results of this election may give us some idea about the policies Iran will pursue from now on. In his view, Iran, with its strong state and social structure, is a country that issues messages in response to events that take place throughout the world, hence the message that comes from this election will again be affected by what is going on around the world. “When the father [George H.W.] Bush was coming to power in the United States toward the end of the Cold War, someone like [Akbar] Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was a well-respected figure in the West, was elected president in Iran. The mellowing atmosphere was made good use of during the term of Bill Clinton, and Muhammad Khatami came to the forefront. As a reaction to the harsh policies of [George] W. Bush, Ahmadinejad was brought to the presidential post. Now, a new leader is being elected who will appear before current US President Barack Obama. Let's see who this leader will be who will determine the color and dosage of the messages to be sent to Washington as a response to its positive messages to Tehran. Ahmadinejad or Mousavi?” asks Yılmaz.
Sabah's Nazlı Ilıcak thinks that if Mousavi wins in Iran, this may help to ease the concerns of secular circles in Turkey, which, from time to time, voice fears that Turkey will turn into a country like Iran where women are forced to wear headscarves. Ilıcak believes that the status and freedom of women in Iranian society will improve if Mousavi – who waged his election campaign alongside his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, a prominent professor and artist who is famous in her own right -- is elected. Rahnavard, who doesn't believe women should be forced to cover their heads, has given hope to women with her promises that women will not be regarded second-class citizens under the presidency of her husband and that there will be three women ministers in his cabinet. “If Mousavi wins, I think the concerns of some circles in Turkey will diminish and new horizons will open for those with frozen thought patterns,” says Ilıcak.
According to Star's Nasuhi Güngör, it is meaningless to talk about the things that will happen if Ahmadinejad is re-elected or if Mousavi is elected because no matter who is elected, the new president of the country will exploit the country's strong points, primarily using its nuclear program as a bargaining chip in the international arena. “For Iran, which has been accepted as an major actor by countries in its region, the identity of the new president may only produce new developments in its internal balances,” says Güngör.
