Having his cake and eating it!

The Ayatollah Khameini's twitter is flooded with #appreciation. His appreciation for the people who came out to support the election. Claiming that "the true winner of the #election is the great nation of #Iran that with the help of God was able to exhibit their heart full of hope&faith/#appreciation", but I think it was he who was the true winner.

The election left us all in a little bit of shock  - the Internet ran smoothly and the "people" were victorious (although being so called democratic elections, it should really be that they won, and this shouldn't be such a surprise). Additionally the most 'liberal' candidate won, by an enormous margin 50.7% of the votes. And in all of this, it is the Ayatollah that is appreciative. 

From early on we knew that a large voter turnout was necessary in order for the elections to seem legitimate, as choosing not to vote could be considered a form of passive protest.Yet come election day, the people went to the polls and elected someone who is not necessarily the Supreme Leader's first choice, or is he?

Before we get a little too excited about this outcome, lets consider a few things. Rowhani used to be directly answerable to the Ayatollah during his role as Secretary of the National Security Council, and is still one of a handful of candidate that were selected to run for president.

The real question is did Khameini play his people like a fiddle? Khameini is anything but naive. He also had the added benefit of having seen the Arab Spring all around him and the current situation in Syria to understand that the winds of reform are in the air. It was no secret that people were going to vote for a  reformist leader - and anyone that was considered close to the Ayatollah at the time would not be considered a reformist. Throughout the election there were rumours in the media that Jalili was the Guardian Council's favoured contender, someone who rejected the softening of any approach. Khameini, arguably, did not come out at any point and confirm such rumours, but neither did he deny them. He just let the rumour mill turn. After the initial rejection of the favoured reformist, the people's choice would be the most opposed to the hard-line views of the Ayatollah (or who was rumoured to be his favoured contender  - Jalili). So the nation got behind the one person that represented an ever so slight glimmer of hope  - and the Ayatollah already knew full well he had a good working relationship with Rowhani. Did he intend for this happen the whole time? He put forward a candidate that spoke to the people and would bring them out to the polls which was so desperately needed in order for the elections to seem legitimate. He let the elections run smoothly and insured no barriers, thus avoiding the threat of any protest and at the end of the day, the president elect was still hand-picked by the Supreme Leader, but with the support of the people. Yes, it seems to me that Ayatollah Khameini had his cake and ate it and for that he sure is #appreciative.