Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, June 17, 2021—In a speech on Wednesday, two days before the sham presidential elections scheduled for June 18, the regime supreme leader pleaded with the people to vote. Khamenei admitted that the “poor segments of the society are discouraged and dissatisfied and don’t want to vote in the elections.”
Khamenei tried to blame the forecasted low voter turnout on the regime’s enemies but also expressed disdain at regime officials who are warning about low voter turnouts. “Some from inside the establishment are trying to dissuade the people. This is wrong. They are spreading hopelessness.”
Khamenei warned, “If [the people] don’t participate [in the elections], the enemy will increase the pressure… If the people’s presence is weak, the establishment will become weaker, and [the enemy] will threaten the country with insecurity and terrorism.”
Khamenei called on his ever-shrinking base of followers to “encourage the people to vote” and warned that not voting will mean the distance between the people and the regime is growing.
In line with Khamenei, in his cabinet meeting on Wednesday, regime president Hassan Rouhani pleaded with the people to vote on Friday and to not boycott the ballot boxes. He also admitted that a poor voter turnout would weaken the regime on the international front.
It is worth noting that while the Khamenei is blaming foreign enemies for the cold welcome the election and its candidates have received, in recent days, people of all walks of life across Iran have been openly calling for the boycott of the elections. Students, workers, pensioners, farmers, and families of the victims of the regime’s barbarous rule have said time and again that while this regime stands, tyranny and corruption will not go away, and the only way to rebuild the country is regime change. Election boycott has also become a hot topic of discussion on social media and has been the subject of several online campaigns.
And what does Khamenei mean by “insecurity and terrorism”? In the past three years, Iran has seen several rounds of major protests, including two nationwide uprisings that drove the regime to the brink of collapse. In these protests, the people called for regime change. The only way Khamenei managed to maintain his hold on power was to order a brutal crackdown on the protests. Khamenei is desperately in need of a high voter turnout to legitimize his brutal rule. A low voter turnout will only pave the way for future waves of protests, which he describes as “insecurity and terrorism.” It will also demoralize his own troops, who will lose their motivations to suppress future protests. And finally, it will delegitimize his regime even among the supporters of the appeasement policy in the West.
But Khamenei’s attempts are futile. His regime has failed to respond to the needs of the people. And the people are fed up with his regime. And this is being seen everywhere across Iran, where the people are ripping posters of presidential candidates and expressing their utter disdain with the regime in its entirety.
As one brave youth said at one of the regime’s ridiculous open mic sessions, “My problem is with the entirety of the regime, with the officials… How do you want me to come and cast my vote when all the candidates are thieves and smugglers and corrupt people? The supreme leader supports all of them. I will not vote to honor the martyrs of the November 2019 protests.”
