The Iranian regime’s ridiculous election show resembles anything but an election, with six candidates who are playing the same role. Even more absurd is the so-called debate that these candidates recently held.
The debate was so disgraceful that regime media described it as “non-debate,” “disappointing,” and a “roundtable discussion.”
On June 19, Mostaghel Online wrote: “So far, the debate has managed to completely dissuade a significant portion of undecided voters from participating in the election.”
The state-run newspaper Farhikhtegan reported: “The generally repetitive discussions of the candidates, which were also raised in economic roundtables, will not help increase participation.”
The state-run newspaper Sazandegi wrote: “The first debate was designed in such a way that the three program hosts constantly delayed the main event with their verbosity.”
In this so-called debate, the six actors supposedly wanted to talk about the economy, which was the debate’s topic; but besides repetitive generalities, they didn’t say a single word about their plans and programs for repairing the devastated economy. Of course, they had nothing to say; firstly, in a kleptocratic regime, no plan or program means anything other than maximum looting of the people, and secondly, the regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei had tightened their reins so they wouldn’t utter a single wrong word and even engage in rational discussion.
Besides, Khamenei has several times warned the actors of his circus against “slander and bad-mouthing and mudslinging” against each other and essentially against the regime.
The reason for these warnings is clear; after the demise of the regime president Ebrahim Raisi and amidst the intensifying crises, the regime is weaker and more fragile than ever and fears that these shows might open a crack and spin the situation beyond control.
Despite all the control measures, even in this “non-debate,” a few drops of the regime’s internal crisis and the current explosive situation leaked out, and hearing some of them is worth the trouble:
Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi said: “We heard generalities again, words that have been repeated before… and have practically created a decade of negative economy for us.”
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said: “All our intellectuals and experts are stunned; then we wonder why our professors are emigrating?”
Massoud Pezeshkian said: “For 40 years, we’ve been saying we’ll fix it! But day by day, our money gets worse, people’s purchasing power gets worse. We say we will give money, but when you want to print money, your debt will make your money worthless. Where will you get the money from?”
Alireza Zakani, in response to Pezeshkian’s remarks, replied: “Mr. Pezeshkian expressed general points that essentially tied everything to everything else, so it wasn’t clear what happened! In the end, it came out that we can’t! I was surprised at how he became a presidential candidate. It’s a source of surprise for us.”
Pezeshkian in his reply, exposed Zakani’s billion-dollar theft as the mayor of Tehran and said: “Our brother Mr. Zakani, if only he would kindly make the contract with China transparent, then say whether its money is from the Central Bank of Iran in China or from Chinese sources…”
But these infights also failed to attract the people’s attention, and reports indicate that people paid no heed to this ridiculous show, and many didn’t even know that a so-called debate was happening. To the point that the Telegram channel of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) acknowledged this reality, wrote: “The first debate can be considered the last debate. It can be guessed that the most definite effect of this debate is that the next debates will be watched even less.”