Protests over Iran elections reach Los Angeles streets

June 15, 12:30 AMLA Headlines ExaminerTad Cronn

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Iranians, Iranian-Americans and sympathizers gathered in the thousands Sunday at the Federal Building in Westwood as part of global demonstrations against the seemingly rigged presidential election in Iran.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's claim to have been re-elected with 63 percent of the vote amid a record turnout in Iran has been greeted by worldwide disbelief and claims that the election was stolen.

By most accounts, Ahmadinejad's regime does not enjoy broad support in Iran, so the landslide win, with a percentage of the vote even higher than President Obama received in his election, is seen as unlikely by most people. Ahmadinejad defeated Mir Hossein Mousavi and other candidates considered to be more favorable to the West.

The Iranian government has cracked down to stop the media from reporting on widespread protests, but protesters have gotten out details of the demonstrations to the rest of the world through Twitter, which they accessed by cell phones.

In Westwood, protesters waved red, green and white Iranian flags and chanted, "Where are our votes, where are our votes?"

The crowd gathered not far from the Little Tehran neighborhood, a strip of Westwood Boulevard that has become a retail center for Iranians in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and the San Fernando Valley.

"There were numerous polls before the election," one protester told Fox News. "Even a lot of governmental polls, pre- election polls, indicated Ahmadinejad had less than 20 percent of the vote -- at most. And Mousavi had 60 to 80 percent of the vote.

"The way they did the counting, (the government) replaced all the observers and brought in their own observers," he said. "They took boxes of polls and counted them in a secret room. The best evidence (of fraud) is the poll, the people -- the people standing in the lines (to vote)."