Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, September 18, 2020—The social isolation of the Iranian regime is nothing new. Since 2018, the Iranian people have expressed their dissatisfaction with the economic, social, and political status quo in five nationwide uprisings. They have clearly spoken their desire to overthrow the regime. State-run media has dubbed the powder-keg situation of the society as “people’s mistrust toward the establishment.”
Another proof of this was Iran’s mid-term parliamentary elections held on Friday, September 10, in ten constituencies across the country.
Hadi Ghafari, once a close confidant of regime founder Ruhollah Khomeini in the 1980s and now claiming to be a reformist, has acknowledged that voter participation was only one percent.
“On Friday, the Shahidastan of Karaj was one of the main polling stations. Thirteen people came to the place from 7 am to 7 pm to monitor, guard and carry out the mid-term parliamentary election voting process. Until 10 am, the votes were only for the governor and until 3 pm, only thirteen people had voted in the Talaghani intersection (downtown Karaj). At 6 pm the number of people who had voted was not even close to 50,” wrote the state-run daily Mostaghel on September 15.
Even with the regime’s engineered numbers, some so-called elected MPs have entered the Majlis with less than five thousand votes.
“The statistics of the Interior Ministry show a significant decline in voter participation. in big cities such as Ahvaz, Karaj and Kermanshah, with a total four million eligible voters, only 200,000 people have voted in total,” the state-run website Khabar Online reported on September 14.
Look back at February’s parliamentary elections
Although mid-term parliamentary elections were never popular even among the regime’s own forces, the main elections back in February was also widely boycotted by Iranians nationwide.
The boycott took place while the regime had engaged in widespread propaganda efforts to encourage people to vote and select one of the many candidates that were thoroughly vetted for their loyalty to the regime.
Ali Khamenei, the regime’s supreme leader, had gone as far in encouraging high voter turnout by resorting to remarks such as come out to vote “even if you don’t like me.” Hassan Rouhani, the regime president, called on the people to vote for the candidates even if they are not suitable.
The 2020 parliamentary elections of Iran, as reported by the regime’s own media and that of the world, recorded the lowest voter turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic.
“The current situation is not stable. We are witnessing nothing but despair and desperation among the people, especially the youths. Things must change,” said Tasnim news agency, an outlet linked to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force.
What must change?
Regime’s insiders and so-called reformists claim that changes and reforms are possible withing the regime. But the mullahs’ rule in the last 40 years has resulted in nothing but poverty and calamity. The result of four decades of the mullahs’ rule is a structural economic crisis, looting of people’s property and wealth, institutional corruption, high inflation, increased smuggling, unemployment, the aristocratic life of officials in luxury estates, and governmental areas, expanding social divides, homelessness, shortages and misery for the Iranian people.
Khamenei tries to safeguard and preserve his regime through repression, imprisonment, and executions. The people have no belief in the regime or any other current of it, and are completely rejecting the entire establishment. The election boycott portrays once again that the people of Iran reject the rule of the Supreme Leader, and will eventually rise to overthrow the regime and establish freedom and democracy in their country.
