Raisi praised the electoral process and considered it a new failure for Iran’s enemies (Anatolia)

Tehran

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After a series of rumors and conflicting reports about the turnout rate in the elections that took place in early March in Iran, Interior Minister Ahmed Vahidi announced the participation of 25 million voters out of more than 61 million, and that the turnout rate in the elections for the Shura Council and leadership experts reached 41. % throughout the country.

In a press conference held last Monday after the completion of the vote counting, Vahidi added that the invalid votes - including white papers, spelling errors, and people whose eligibility to run - constituted 5% of the total participants, but he refrained from giving details about the participation rate in the major cities, especially Tehran, as it is It represents the political center of the Islamic Republic.

While official statistics show a decline in the participation rate by more than 1.5% compared to the previous parliamentary elections in 2020, Mehr News Agency announced that the participation rate in the capital fell to 24%, so that these statistics paint a different scene from the last electoral election, recording the lowest participation rate since the victory of the Iranian Revolution. 1979.

Ali Khamenei described the electoral process as enthusiastic despite attempts to discourage Iranians from participating (Anatolia)

Street opinions

Participation has always been the most prominent issue in these elections, and the official announcement sparked widespread controversy in Iranian circles.

Among those who boast that the number of participants exceeded the last elections and that the participation rate exceeds the global average, and others who see the justification for the first category as fallacious and misleading, because it did not take into account the increase in the number of voters inside the country and the circumstances of the Corona pandemic under which the previous elections were held.

Al Jazeera Net polled the opinions of Iranian citizens in Jihad Square (central Tehran) about the participation rate in the recent elections, and their readings varied regarding the reasons for abstaining from voting and the messages to be delivered to the ruling authorities.

Ali Reda (48 years old) questions the credibility of the announced statistics on the turnout rate, and explains that the concerned authorities were keen to support the eligibility of many candidates in remote provinces and cities to compensate for the boycott resulting from the Guardian Council’s rejection of the majority of prominent political figures.

Hajja Mehri (68 years old) praises popular participation, which she described as “superior to Western democracies,” while young Sahar Naz (28 years old) commented that the final results confirm the reluctance of 59% of voters to vote and express their dissatisfaction with the current policies that they see as incapable of meeting their needs. Their aspirations, and this has implications for those with wisdom and skill, as she put it.

As for Ismail Moghadam Nia (59 years old), he attributes the people’s turning their backs to the ballot boxes to his conviction that his vote has lost any real influence in running the country, he said, calling on his country’s authorities to study the reasons and factors for the decline in the turnout rate and work to achieve reconciliation with the people.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the electoral process as "enthusiastic despite attempts to discourage Iranians from participating," and President Ebrahim Raisi considered that the electoral process revealed "a new historical failure of Iran's enemies after the riots in 2022."

On the other hand, political activist Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh criticized the behavior of the ruling authorities as it was the main factor behind the decline in people’s turnout at the ballot boxes, stressing that the real percentage of popular participation did not exceed 35% after deducting the percentage of white papers and objection votes.

In another tweet on the

Political activist Mahmoud Sadiqi saw that “the continuing downward trend in the turnout rate serves as a warning bell to the ruling authorities,” and advised the ruling movement - in a tweet posted on the X platform - to take this warning seriously and accept structural reforms to make the elections meaningful instead of denying the facts and claiming victory in Last entitlement.

Reasons for decline

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller considered the low turnout in the Iranian elections “an additional indicator of popular discontent,” adding that “the Iranian authorities’ claims about the turnout are usually unreliable,” he said.

In the midst of the busy analysis and commentary in Iranian political and academic circles, the sociologist Maqsoud Farastekhwah summarized the reasons for the decline in the participation rate in the Iranian elections in 6 axes that he published on his website, which are the rejection of the eligibility of candidates, the restrictions on reformists, and the pressures targeting the citizen in a wide range of his individual affairs, Political extremism among the ruling and opposition authorities, restricting activists, and reducing the scope of available freedoms.

Political observers add other reasons for the decline in the percentage of popular participation in the Iranian elections, most notably the objection to the election oversight mechanism, the failure to fulfill the promises that candidates have made in the past elections, and the ineffectiveness of political parties except during election seasons.

It is not difficult for anyone who follows Iranian affairs to find the repercussions of the 2022 protests - which followed the death of the young woman Mahsa Amini following her arrest at the morality police headquarters on the pretext of not adhering to the hijab laws - present in the recent electoral arena, as female candidates focused in their electoral campaigns on the necessity of “confronting truly unjust laws.” Women, including those related to the issue of the hijab.”

Iranian politician Ali Sufi believes that the people have lost hope for change in the country and improvement of the situation there (Iranian press)

Popular messages

For his part, the Secretary-General of the "Pishro" Party, Ali Sufi, believes that the decline in the participation rate in the Iranian elections must be addressed, because if the percentage of invalid votes is taken into account, then it will become clear that the real turnout rate is lower than what was announced by the Ministry of Interior.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Sufi focused on the necessity of decoding the reluctance to participate or submit white papers, and expressed his regret at the failure of the concerned authorities to listen to this phenomenon and celebrate what they consider a victory, which suggests that they do not pay attention to popular participation.

When reading between the lines of the decline in participation in the Iranian elections, the Iranian politician believes that the people have lost hope for change in the country and improvement of the situation there, and he attributed this to some parties turning a blind eye to the aspirations of the people, warning of the consequences of keeping the status quo in place.

Source: Al Jazeera