On Tuesday, June 25, amid election issues and crises following the death of Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei explicitly told presidential candidates and officials involved in the elections, “Anyone who has even a slight disagreement with the system is useless!” Khamenei could not have more clearly expressed his desperation and difficulty in filling the void left by Raisi, who “did not have even a slight disagreement with the system.”
Khamenei, reminiscing about the 40th day after Raisi’s death, said with regret: “Our late president truly believed in the foundations of this revolution and this system. I had known him for a long time. During his three-year presidency, it was clear that he acted with heart and soul. This thirteenth government was one that made good use of its capacities. If this government had continued, I strongly believe that many of the country’s problems, mainly economic issues, would have been resolved.”
Under the pretext of giving “advice and message to election candidates,” Khamenei said: “If you succeed and gain responsibility, do not appoint people who have even a slight disagreement. Anyone who has even a slight disagreement with the revolution, with [Khomeini], or with the Islamic system is useless to you. Anyone who is enamored with America and thinks that nothing can be done without America’s favor will not be a good colleague for you. They will not manage well.”
These statements by Khamenei are both instructions for what he calls “the best choice” and a sign of his frustration and anger at the disagreements and uncertainties that candidates and their advisors showed during election debates.
In his speech, Khamenei showed how disheartened he is by the counterproductive results of such debates and arguments, which were both contentious and unremarkable. According to state media and government polls, these have led to a decline in interest in the regime’s sham elections.
Speaking on the last day of the so-called debates, he also demonstrated his unsolvable dilemma. On the one hand, he emphasized contraction and purification, along with the missile and nuclear path, and that “even a slight disagreement” is intolerable, outright rejecting his promises. But on the other hand, he went to great lengths in pleading for “participation” to counter enemies, displaying his intense fear of the mass boycott of his elections.
Khamenei said: “In any election where participation is low, the enemies of the Islamic Republic stick out their tongues and criticize us. When participation is high, the tongues of the detractors are silenced; they cannot blame or rejoice. We do not let the enemies rejoice. This is why I insist on high participation. Therefore, the first element is participation. The general public should not be lazy or indifferent, should not underestimate it, and should participate in all corners of the country.”
All these requests for participation are the flip side of his utmost fear of a mass boycott of the upcoming election. This was a blow that Khamenei suffered in the parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections on March 1, which inflicted a great defeat on him and his regime at a critical juncture.
But the true response to the regime’s elections is the message that Resistance Units have written on the walls of Iranian cities these days: “Since June 20, 1981, our vote has been to overthrow the regime.”