Once they had established their dominance, the Ayatollahs initially controlled a draconian regime based on religious extremism more brutal than the Shah’s, and relying heavily on various security services. The political constitution does, however, allow (within a theocratic framework) regular parliamentary and presidential elections, which supporters of moderate reform could attempt to use. It was in response to the regime blatantly ‘stealing’ the election from the opposition candidate for the presidency in 2009 that the ‘Green Revolution’ erupted. The western press dubbed the protests the ‘Twitter revolution’, but the importance of Twitter in the organization of the protests has been contested. The Arab Spring prompted a brief resurgence of protest in early 2011.