Presidential election in Iran: voters no longer believe in promises
Iranians follow the second presidential televised debate from a shop in Tehran, June 8, 2021. AFP - ATTA KENARE
Text by: Sara Saidi Follow
5 mins
On June 18, Iranians are called to the polls.
Seven candidates are vying for victory, five of them are part of the hard wing of the regime.
For some Iranians, disappointed and tired of the regime's political games, there is no longer any question of going to vote.
Publicity
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The
video
made the rounds on social networks.
We see the various candidates for the Iranian presidential election on an athletics track.
The ultra-conservative candidate and close to the Supreme Guide, Ebrahim Raïssi, starts the race ahead of time then shoots one after another on his opponents, but also on incumbent President Rouhani, and wins the race.
The tone of this election is set: for some Iranians, the game is over, the victory of Ebrahim Raïssi is organized in advance.
“We won't be fooled anymore!
"
In Tehran, Vali *, although usually involved in Iranian politics, is one of the many Iranians who have decided to shun the ballot box this year, disappointed by the decision of the Council of Guardians of the Constitution at the end of May to eliminate all reformist candidates. close to outgoing President Hassan Rohani, as well as the so-called pragmatic conservative Ali Larijani, former President of the Assembly (Majles) and adviser to the Supreme Guide.
Everyone sees it as a way to facilitate access to power for Ebrahim Raïssi, the unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2017. This ultra-conservative, head of the judiciary,
is also said to be tipped to replace 82-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
“
At one point the regime needed someone like Khatami, so they made him win. At another time, he needed someone like Ahmadinejad, they made sure he was elected… Can we really think that there is something else, apart from this? game?
», Asks Vali *. “
I think I've just matured. I will not go to vote this year, I will be more peaceful like that, that they do what they want
, ”he explains. “
We won't be fooled anymore
! », Also adds Néda *, professor of French in Tehran.
On social networks, many memes also illustrate the resignation and disinterestedness of the Iranians in the ballot, such as
this diversion
of the cartoon Tom & Jerry where we see Tom threatening an indifferent Jerry with the names of the various conservative candidates.
Or this Internet user who
quotes
the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: "
They are Panurge sheep, who follow the head ram, wherever it leads them: it is easier for them to die than to think
".
"If we don't vote, there will be incompetent people in power"
Asphyxiated by the
economic crisis
, inflation of 40% and an unprecedented fall in the rial, the Iranian population no longer believes in the promises of reform from its leaders.
The violent crackdown on the November 2019 protests, the crash of the Ukraine International Airlines plane, shot down by Iranian air defense, and the catastrophic handling of the health crisis - Iran is, indeed, the one of the countries most affected by Covid in the Middle East - has strongly weakened a regime that seems to have lost its legitimacy with a large part of the population.
Abstention is therefore likely to be particularly high this year.
►
See also: Iran: in Vienna, new round of negotiations around nuclear power against the backdrop of the presidential election
But for Mariam *, in her thirties, not going to vote risks doing more harm than good: “
I was shocked by the decision of the Council of Guardians of the Constitution, especially by the elimination of Larijani, but afterwards I told myself if we don't vote, there will be incompetent people in power, as was the case during Ahmadinejad's first term and more recently during the legislative elections of February 2020, where abstention allowed Mohammad Ghalibaf to become president of the Assembly
”, regrets the young woman from Tehran. To avoid the coming to power of the conservatives, she will therefore vote for reformer Abdolnaser Hemmati, former governor of the Iranian Central Bank. A default choice that it nevertheless assumes.
Despite calls from various candidates urging citizens to go and vote to thwart the forecasts, according to Vali, it's always the same story: "
They always do that: scare us to take us to the polls (...) the reformers are worse off. that conservatives and conservatives worse than reformers.
Since 1997 I have been voting for the reformers, but what have these people done?
No, they are all the same
!
», He concludes, resigned.
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