June 18, 2021, marked a turning point in Iran’s history. This event as the regime’s state media introduced it was the formation of the ‘dichotomy between voting and not voting.’
This dichotomy was a clear sign that the Iranian society with all its strata did not accept and tolerate this totalitarian regime anymore.
Fearing this result the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei asked the people before that day to participate and not huff with the ballot box.
“Huffing with the ballot box does not solve the problem. People’s complaints are valid, but their conclusions are not correct, everyone must participate in the elections.”
The democratic opposition claims the authorities have exaggerated the turnout at the polls by a factor of five, while the Iranian Resistance’s reporters published videos from deserted ballot stations.
And this paradox becomes real when the ‘elected’ President Ebrahim Raisi asked the people, “Everyone is disappointed and has difficulty participating in the elections for any reason. I adhere to everything I said in the campaign.”
At the end of the day, Fars News Agency unexpectedly announced the participation of 22 million (about 37%) by 7 pm.
However, the boycott of the elections by the Iranian people reached a level where even the engineering of quadrupling the votes cast in the ballot box could not announce the percentage of participants above 50%. This means that even with these engineered figures, more than 50% of the Iranian people did not participate in the elections.
The actual figure is less than 10%. And Raisi is a 10% president. The number of invalid votes that is higher than the announced votes of the other candidates in this sham election speaks for itself.
It is not uncommon to declare victory in an engineered election and a totalitarian government without the supervision of international organizations. By displacing 11 million Syrians and killing more than half a million Syrians, Bashar al-Assad held elections on the bloody ground and declared himself the sole winner with 95.1% of the votes.
Now Raisi is the most unsupported and fragile president in the regime’s history:
“There was a lot of talk during the election and bad things were done by some centers, especially the Guardian Council. But it was over. The number of invalid votes shows the seriousness of the people in conveying their message; But let us not complain. Do not search for the culprit. Let us not make fruitless complaints. Most political parties came to increase participation. But it did not happen. Most people did not want it.” (State-run news agency SNN, June 19, 2021)
The truth is that with Raisi as the president Khamenei has removed that insulation layer between the people and himself. From now on him and his president must face the unrestrained fury and protests of the people which will lead to their overthrow undoubtedly.
The time for hiding behind alibis like the incompetence of the “Government of prudence and hope” (Rouhani) and “Western liberals” and playing the role of the government’s opposition and carrying about the people’s lives is over.
The time of the regime’s happiness will be over soon and real contradictions and conflicts with the people will show themselves.
Mohammad-Ali Abtahi a government cleric: “Instead of traditional protests, we know that the job of Raisi is very difficult. Also, inside because of the lack of good company. And abroad due to undesirable cooperation.” (State-run news agency SNN, June 19, 2021)
As one of the regime’s elements Mehdi Jamshidi, a faculty member of the Department of Culture and Research, Institute of Culture and Social Studies, Institute of Islamic Culture, and Ideology, confessed:
“We got votes from a society that was ‘immersed in itself’ and had lost its ‘political trust’. A society whose heart was full of ‘living pains’ and whose ‘cry’ was broken in the throat. Today, even a ‘small mistake’ is a ‘big mistake’; A ‘slip’ poisons the political confidence of the people and intensifies divisions and discontents.
“More than ever, we need ‘miniature precision’ and ‘narrow-minded sensibilities’, and we should not allow ourselves to ‘make mistakes’. This opportunity is ‘historic’ and not easily obtained; We paid exorbitant costs to reach this destination.
“Repeating the experience of Ahmadinejad’s downfall is the most dangerous and deadly thing that can happen. The caravan is crossing the ‘neck’ and needs a lot of care and attention. We must instill in ourselves that we have not the ‘right to make mistakes.’
“The era of ‘trial and error’ is over, and we must get out of these ‘vicious circles’ and not repeat any bitter experience ‘again’ and ‘many times’.” (Bultan News, June 19, 2021)
In the new coordinates of Khamenei and his president, there is no possibility of making mistakes. The first mistake can be the last; because the Iranian society proved on 18 June that it seeks its change of destiny not through the ballot boxes of this government, but outside it.
Raisi has become the head of a government that is based on the crater of a beating volcano by the people’s discontent and fury.
