His news crowded out the election results ... did Corona influence participation in Iran's legislation?

Ahmad al-Sibai - Tehran

Wherever your face is turned on the streets of Tehran, you see only people wearing masks. On Friday's parliamentary election day, it was clear that caution and the duty to vote had gathered with those who were queuing to vote.

Participants and electoral center officials were keen to put up masks to send a message of reassurance to the people. This caution and caution were met by the authorities in a step that consisted in refraining from compulsory placing the finger of the voter in ink and fingerprinting the statements of the participants.

Tehran Governor Anushirwan Mohseni Bandabi and spokesperson for the Guardian Council Abbas Kaddakhi stated that "the fingerprint is optional, not compulsory," and stressed that "because of the spread of Corona, voters are not obligated to put their finger in the ink."

Corona news has crowded out election results and participation rates, especially after four deaths were announced and about twenty people were infected with the virus.

But what was the Iranian media’s opinion on the effect of this virus on the participation rates?

Iranian official channels have since this morning extensively covered Corona virus and explained its symptoms and methods of prevention, and considered it "less dangerous than other viruses because it kills only 2% of those who contract it, but its danger lies in the rapid spread and delay in the appearance of symptoms on the infected person."

It also considered that "the people did not fear the virus, and flocked to polling stations heavily in Tehran and the remaining cities, and cast their votes for their future."

lie
Also strongly, the Corona virus recorded its presence in newspapers in all its directions. The conservative "Kayhan" newspaper published a headline saying "Lying and talking about Corona ... the latest dirty game for political bankruptcy."

"Many foreign anti-regime politicians and hostile states have called us to intimidate the people from Corona and ask them not to participate in the elections for their health, but people participated extensively even in the city of Qom (which recorded the first deaths and injuries) ".

It quoted banners that the voters were holding at polling stations, saying, "Corona is a simple issue, even if we are infected with all viruses and diseases, this will not deter us from participating in the elections, we are the children of revolution and jihad."

Fears
As for the "Ibtikar" reformist newspaper, it held that "there are fears in the countries of the region of the spread of this virus in Iran."

The newspaper added that "Kuwait suspended flights to Iran, and all comers from Iran will enter the quarantine. So did Iraq, which closed its land borders, prevented visitors and stopped importing goods, and all of this may affect Iran's economy, which Iraq regards as its main market."

Limited impact
It was interesting to note that the conservative and reformist currents in the elections agreed on the limited influence of Corona in the voting percentages.

The Secretary General of the "Sabz" party, Hussein Kanaani Moghaddam, believes that "the issue of Corona has had a limited impact on the elections, because this virus was the reason that a small segment of the people did not participate."

The former Iranian Revolutionary Guards officer told Al-Jazeera Net that "the low participation rate in Tehran was expected ... I conducted a study before the elections, the results of which were that the expected participation rate in the capital reaches 50%, but with Corona it may decrease slightly."

On the opposite bank, the reformist candidate for the "Alliance for Iran" list, Dr. Afshin Alaa, agrees with Kanaani's opinion that the influence of Corona on the elections was within its minimum and is hardly taken into account.

Alaa attributed, in a telephone call to Al-Jazeera Net, "The decline in participation rates due to popular dissatisfaction with the performance of the government and the lack of plans to confront the economic and social problems that young people suffer."

He concluded that "there is a barrier between the people and the government that has increased with the recent popular protests and the downing of the Ukrainian plane."