Presidential election in Iran: ultra-conservative Raïssi victorious, participation very low

The ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi was proclaimed the winner on Saturday of the Iranian presidential election the day before, marked by the lowest participation in such a poll since the proclamation of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Not surprisingly, Ebrahim Raïssi, head of the Judicial Authority The 60-year-old won in the first round against three other candidates after a lackluster election campaign amid general dissatisfaction with the economic and social crisis.

A participation rate of 48.8%

He obtained 61.95% of the vote, according to the final results of the Ministry of the Interior. The official participation rate is 48.8%. Hodjatoleslam (rank lower than ayatollah in the hierarchy of the Shiite clergy), Ebrahim Raïssi was a favorite archival, for lack of real competition after the disqualification of his main opponents. The head of the Judicial Authority, due to take office in August, inherits a country in the grip of a serious economic crisis, a consequence of the sanctions imposed by the United States against Iran after the decision of the former president American Donald Trump to denounce in 2018 the international Iranian nuclear agreement concluded in 2015 in Vienna.

Although coming from a political current characterized by anti-Americanism and rejection of the West, Ebrahim Raïssi recalled during the campaign that the priority - in accordance with the line set by Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei - was to obtain the lifting of these sanctions to get the country out of the rut.

His election should therefore have no effect on the negotiations underway to save the Vienna Accord by reintegrating the United States into it.

The solution is a priori the lifting of American sanctions requested by Iran in exchange for the return of Tehran to the full and complete application of the agreement, the Islamic Republic having abandoned in response to the American blockade most of the safeguards. limiting his nuclear activities which he had accepted in Vienna.

Calls to boycott the opposition in exile

According to official figures, Major General Mohsen Rezai, former commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, finished second with more than 11.79%, but the total of his votes was less than that of invalid ballots.

The former president of the Central Bank Abdolnasser Hemmati, obtains 8.39%, in front of the deputy Amirhossein Ghazizadeh-Hachémi (3.45%).

Even before the official turnout was released, Ayatollah Khamenei claimed that the "big winner" of the elections was "the Iranian nation [which] once again stood up against the mercenary media propaganda of the enemy. ".

In the weeks leading up to the election, the few polls available had suggested a record abstention rate of over 60%.

Several Iranian officials, including outgoing President Hassan Rouhani, were concerned that low participation could harm the "maintenance of the legitimacy" of the Islamic Republic.

Ali Khamenei himself had called on several occasions to defeat a campaign of opposition movements in exile calling for a boycott of the ballot.

The president has limited prerogatives in Iran, where most of the power is in the hands of the Supreme Leader.

Amnesty International denounces the election of Ebrahim Raïssi

For the opposition in exile and human rights defenders, Ebrahim Raïssi is the embodiment of repression and his name associated with the mass executions of left-wing detainees in 1988, when he was deputy prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran . Amnesty International has denounced his election as president, saying he should be investigated for "crimes against humanity" and "brutal repression" of human rights.