Just 18 months after the landslide election of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad of Iran, the bloody nose delivered to his government at the weekend suggests Iranian politics is entering a new and volatile stage in which voters deliver swift verdicts on their leaders.
“Of course the results are a strong message for the president, just as mid-term elections in the US were for [George W.] Bush,” said a former senior official. “It’s a sign that changes need to be made and that radical policies should be revised in favour of greater pragmatism.”
