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There were predictive estimates.

Washington Post estimated Ahmadinejad victory by margin of 2:1 about 3 weeks before the election based on polling data.

There are also rumors sifting out of the intelligence community that the margin was expected to be about 2:1.

Obviously the rumored intelligence report I cannot verify.

The Washington Post report is elaborated on here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8101841.stm (Just search the article text for 'Washington Post' if you are not interested in the rest.)

I'm starting to get the feeling that this was not a rigged election.



That Washington Post survey you mention is flawed for a number of reasons, the main being that while it showed Ahmadinejad ahead 2:1, it was only with 33.8% saying they'd vote for Ahmadinejad, 13.6% for Mousavi, and a full 42.5% of the respondents saying that they were either undecided or would not answer the question.

Obviously a survey in which the amount of undecideds is far greater than the amount saying they will vote for a candidate is hardly evidence of strong polling for that candidate.

More: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/did-polling-predict-a...


Let's suppose, however, that 100% of the undecided went for Mousavi. Well, he would have just barely won, about 55-56%. It is statistically improbable that 100% went for Mousavi. So while we are not talking about something that was mathematically impossible, we are talking about something that was statistically improbable.




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