: 1245343451

Reza Delghavi, an Iranian artist living in Jamaica, has taken the week off from work, sick to his stomach over the news coming from his home country. He has been glued to television and Internet coverage three hours per day since the June 12 election.

“The Iranian regime sooner or later would have to be accountable for the atrocities – as well as the mismanagements that have held the Iranian economy and society within passed years,” Delghavi said.

Queens is home to the City’s largest Iranian population and many are still reeling from the chaos created by the nation’s allegedly bogus election results.

The Iran election was reported to have had an 85 percent turnout among registered voters. The lead candidates were incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who many believed would be the victor.

Within a few hours of polls closing, the Iranian government announced that Ahmedinejad won 62 percent of the vote, with Mousavi at 33 percent. The millions of hand ballots cast make it seem extremely unlikely that votes could have been tabulated that quickly.

The Kew Gardens area is home to a sizable population of Jewish immigrants from Iran. Mojgan Lancman, a Jewish-Iranian law clerk and wife of Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows), did not have a favorite in the election.

“The people of Iran are choosing the lesser of two evils. If you research Mousavi, he was one of the first people to be with Khameni,” she said, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, and a main instigator of the Islamic Revolution.

“I would like to see a recount that is true, and is a valid a reflection of what the people actually voted,” she said. “The West should not be surprised. This is not the first time the Islamic Republic has cracked down on people making their voice heard. It definitely won’t be the last time.”

One of the election’s two New York polling places was located in Woodside at the Imam Ali Islamic Center. The station was set up by the Iranian Interests Section of Pakistan’s Washington Embassy. But neither the Interests Section, nor Iran’s UN Mission – which the poll inquiry was fielded to – could supply the Tribune with the election results from that station.

A representative of the Iran’s UN Mission became defensive on request of the information, saying that those polling results were not open to the public, and that location-based election results were not made public in The United States either.

Delghavi did not hold any stock in the Woodside poll results. He believes that they were fudged as well.

Since the election, masses of Mousavi supporters have clashed with police in demonstrations resulting in injuries and deaths. Telecommunications were blocked. Reporting has been restricted, and journalists threatened. Mousavi was reportedly placed under house arrest, which Ahmedinejad explained away as resulting from a traffic violation. The country remains embroiled in general unrest.