Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, May 14, 2021—The Iranian regime’s upcoming elections masquerade, scheduled for June, is of important sensitivity, and regime officials and media are already warning about its potential outcome with descriptions such as “cold and silent atmosphere of the election,” “people’s discouragement, especially the youth, from politics,” “people do not welcome parties,” ” ignoring the ballot boxes,” and “repetitive and tested faces.”
Recently, one newspaper used terms such as “structural inefficiency” and “fake politicians on both sides, reformist and hardliners” to describe the election circus and its participants.
Fake politicians
The state-run Arman daily wrote on May 11: “In the last four decades, the political atmosphere in Iran has never been as cold as it is today as the date of the presidential election approaches. This is the result of a process, and the most important reason for its structural inefficiency was the fake politicians posing as reformists and hardliners. People are fed up with being played, and the saying no to the ballot box is not a political act alone; it is the most important message for infrastructure reform.”
“Structural inefficiency” and “fake politicians” give testament to the fact that the mullahs’ regime, by its very nature, has nothing in common with free elections. The regime’s candidates from both factions are fake, caricatures at best. The people have experienced that their vote will not change anything within the framework of this regime and this constitution. The hardliners and the reformists ultimately work together to preserve the regime and they share the same values and goals when it comes to committing crimes and repressing the public. They only differ is in labels and names.
Denouncing the ruling class
The Iranian people are not passive in their hatred and disgust toward the regime’s sham presidential elections. And this is a fact that the regime is increasingly worried about. According to a January 23 report by the Hamdeli daily: “The economic situation of the country and the mismanagement of the past years and decades became the subject of intense protests and the official denouncement of [the regime’s] political currents with slogans that call for structural changes. These slogans were not taken seriously at first, but the developments that followed, especially during the 11th parliamentary elections, showed that the issue is more serious than was previously thought.”
Now this “serious issue” has become a thorn on the regime’s side. The people have expressed their position with significant indifference and boycott of the election. It is already clear that the June 18 election will be more of a government show than a popular move. People have known that the only solution is to take to the streets. The nationwide boycott of the regime’s sham election is the flip side of the nationwide desire for regime change.
According to the Arman daily article: “Without the people’s participation, elections are meaningless, and the government will face a serious crisis, and its threat to the country’s security and political components will be inevitable, both internally and externally. According to this principle, the absence of people at the ballot box is a danger itself, and a solution must be found in the short term,” according to a May 11 report by the Arman daily.
Otherwise put, the regime’s own media are acknowledging that the elections masquerade that it puts up every four years is over.
The nationwide boycott of this election is an announcement by the Iranian people of a firm stand to overthrow religious tyranny.
The regime anticipates and is already concerned about this threat to its rule. Every uncast ballot is a yes to regime change.
