Iran’s regime held its premature presidential election on June 28 to choose the successor to Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19. The regime has been campaigning profusely to convince people to vote in the election.
But reports indicate that the people have not paid heed to the regime’s propaganda efforts and are refusing to show up at the polling stations.
In Iran’s early presidential elections, local sources and media reports reveal the regime’s desperate attempts to drum up participation amidst widespread public disillusionment and anger. The elections face a crisis following years of brutally cracking down on legitimate calls for change and a strong public sentiment to boycott the polls.
On Tuesday, June 25, amid election issues and crises following the death of Ebrahim Raisi, Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei explicitly told presidential candidates and officials involved in the elections, “Anyone who has even a slight disagreement with the system is useless!” Khamenei could not have more clearly expressed his desperation and difficulty in filling the void left by Raisi, who “did not have even a slight disagreement with the system.”
In his speech, Khamenei showed how disheartened he is by the counterproductive results of such debates and arguments, which were both contentious and unremarkable. According to state media and government polls, these have led to a decline in interest in the regime’s sham elections.
All these requests for participation are the flip side of his utmost fear of a mass boycott of the election on June 28. This was a blow that Khamenei suffered in the parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections on March 1, which inflicted a great defeat on him and his regime at a critical juncture.
In a situation where Iran is facing deep economic and social crises, the election show only shows the deep distance between the government and the people. The fact is that the Iranian regime is suffering from a crisis of legitimacy
Reports from inside Iran so far indicate that the people have widely boycotted the elections on June 28.
