Iran's legislative elections on March 1, with all candidates coming from conservative factions, will be marked by the lack of alternative visions, widespread discontent over the economic situation and a call for abstention and boycott as a way of showing the rejection of the current system, especially after the state repression of the protests unleashed by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. Polls predict a participation of 30%.
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The Islamic Republic of Iran will vote on March 1 to elect its legislative representatives. More of 60 million Iranians They are called to the polls to elect the 290 deputies of the Parliament, dominated by conservatives, and the 88 members of the Assembly of Experts, the body in charge of choosing the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian Parliament opts 15,200 candidates – 1,713 of them women – while 144 candidates will fight for a position in the Assembly of Experts. This body is elected every eight years and the outcome of the elections could have great importance in the future of the Islamic Republic, given the high age of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, 84 years old.
The elections come amid widespread discontent over the economic crisis, years of massive protests that shake the country, tensions with the West over Tehran's nuclear program and Iran's support for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
The conservative faction, natural candidate to control Parliament
Factions whose vision favors reformist or liberal ideas – disqualified by the Council of Guardians, the election supervisory body – will not be able to participate in the elections, so multiple human rights associations and critics have described the electoral process as unfair. Therefore, the unknown is not in the result, where the conservative wing is expected to continue controlling Parliament, but in participation.
If in 2020 41% of voters went to the polls – the lowest attendance in the country's history – the surveys predict that the low participation will be overcome: The figures show that on this occasion only 30% will exercise their right to vote. That is why Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, called for a vote to “save the country.”
“Anyone who loves Iran, its nation and its security should know that if weak elections are held, no one will benefit and everyone will be harmed,” the priest said, adding that elections must have “massive participation.”
The electoral process, in the absence of alternative visions, has a single line of thought that favors the regime that currently holds power. AND Voting in these elections, according to critical voices, means legitimizing the Ayatollah's power. For this reason, Khamenei went ahead: “Let them think a little more,” he said in reference to anyone who calls for a boycott of the polls. And he settled the debate: “I remind everyone that we must look at the elections from the perspective of national interests, not from the perspectives of factions and groups.”
The revolution is still present in homes
Mahsa Amini, 22, died in September 2022, after being detained by the Police for wearing her Islamic veil incorrectly. Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, They claim that they received “credible” testimonies that she had been tortured and beaten. What happened next is history: Hundreds of handkerchiefs burned and thousands of people, in a feminist revolution, took to the streets. to point to the supreme power.
The protest spread, even beyond the borders, and with it came repression. Proof of this was the reaction of the police force: 500 dead – 69 of them minors – and eight executions, one of them in public. Once the population lowered their arms and the streets were empty, Hundreds of people, including many women, have called to ignore the process that will take place on March 1.
“Voting in the elections of the Islamic Republic would make me an accomplice in their crimes,” Maryam, from Tehran, tells the EFE agency. Niki, along the same lines, explains: “You don't even have the right to protest peacefully and when you do you don't know if you will return home or not.” On Friday, he points out, silence will be the most forceful protest: “By not voting we can show that a majority does not support this system.”
Sanctioning elections is not only a political necessity but also a moral duty.
I, alongside the informed people from all over Iran, will stand to declare the illegitimacy of the IR & the divide between the oppressive regime & its people through the sanctioning of sham elections. pic.twitter.com/h0JDcTqJIb— Narges Mohamadi (@freenargesmhmd) February 24, 2024
Like them, hundreds of public figures have called for a boycott, such as the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi.
“Boycotting the elections of a despotic religious regime is not only a political action, but also a moral obligation for Iranians who love freedom and seek justice,” Mohammadi said in a statement distributed by his family on Instagram.
With EFE and AP
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