Swag Award of the Week June 16-21

I know I'm a tad later than usual with the Swag Award this week, but for days nothing really struck me enough as "swag-worthy" for a bit. Maybe my news/blog/entertainment/etc. etc. consumption levels were down. Maybe it was because my personal swag levels weren't at all-time highs. Who knows? We all have those weeks. Long story short, after watching this situation develop over the last few days I think the Iranian citizens are more than deserving of this weeks award. 

A few days back, I blogged about the Iranians using social media to send out images of the protests despite attempts by the government to deny such actions. The situation has grown from bad to worse. It has been announced that recorded votes from 50 cities were tarnished, accounting  for more than 3 million fraudulent votes. 

Fraudulent votes..sounds a lot the 2000 election here in the states do you think? Despite the fraudulent votes, the Guardian Council(read about this group if you're sure what they're about) maintains that the results are legitimate and that the 3 million votes were not enough to change the outcome. 

The citizens are outraged, and rightfully so. There are a few other concerns the people of Iran have regarding the elections however.

An excerpt from NY Times:

How did the government manage to count enough of the 40 million paper ballots to be able to announce results within two hours of the polls closing? How is it that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s margin of victory remained constant throughout the ballot count? Why did the government order polls closed at 10 p.m. when they often stay open until midnight for presidential races? Why were some ballot boxes sealed before candidates’ inspectors could validate they were empty? Why were votes counted centrally, by the Interior Ministry, instead of locally, as in the past? Why did some polling places lock their doors at 6 p.m. after running out of ballots?

A lot of concerns, valid ones at that don't you think? The death toll stands at 17, the Iranian government continues to go forward with the results as they are and the outrage continues around the country. Iran's reputation in the world has been bruised as a result of this ordeal and Britain has expelled two Iranian diplomats in response to the Iranian government expelling two British diplomats days earlier. 

The odds certainly seemed stacked against the people, but they continue to draw attention to the situation despite the governments attempts to quash it. Keep fighting the good fight, the end result may be a favorable one..a fair one at least.