The rigged election has also split the military. The third losing candidate was Gen. Mohsen Rezai Mir-Qaed — who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for 16 years.

Rezai’s humiliating defeat — in an election widely viewed as rigged — has angered many Guard officers, who see him as something of a father figure. Defense Minister Gen. Mustafa Muhammad Najjar has praised Ahmadinejad in public — but the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Ali Jaafari, has maintained a meaningful silence. More, he has refused to send in Guard units to crush demonstrations in Tehran and 16 other major cites.

Since Ahmadinejad owes his ascent to support from the military-security establishment, any split in the Guard and its allied organs could spell trouble now.