With the completion of the vote count for the majority of ballot boxes, Iran’s Ministry of Interior declared Massoud Pezeshkian as the winner of the 14th presidential election.
According to the Ministry of Interior, in the second round, Massoud Pezeshkian secured 16,384,157 votes, defeating Saeed Jalili to win the presidency for a four-year term.
According to figures released by the Iranian regime, voter turnout was about 40% in the first round and 50% in the second round. However, there are serious doubts about the accuracy of these statistics. Many accuse the government of manipulating the results and inflating the number of votes, claiming that the actual turnout was much lower than reported.
Simultaneously, on Friday, July 5, during the second round of the early presidential election, several civil and political activists, along with families of victims of the Iranian regime, insisted on the sham nature of the elections and called for a boycott. More than 100 political prisoners in Evin Prison refused to participate in the elections.
The Iranian regime had canceled prison leaves in some prisons due to the election.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the main opposition group, reported that the turnout was 12% in the first round and 9% in the second round.
“Voluntary and compulsory votes in 58,640 fixed and mobile polling stations are about 5.5 million, equivalent to 9 percent of eligible voters.
The PMOI Social Headquarters inside Iran, on Friday, July 5, 2024, during the second round of the regime’s presidential election, undertook to monitor 2,000 fixed polling stations in a sampling recommended by experts,” PMOI emphasized.
After the ballot boxes were taken to Evin prison, over a hundred political prisoners refused to participate in this electoral circus.
Images and videos from dozens of cities in Iran indicate widespread non-participation by the public in the voting.
Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime, finally acknowledged on July 3rd, after four days of silence, that public participation in the first round of voting among the regime’s preferred candidates to succeed Raisi was “less than expected.”
While the majority of Iranian citizens boycotted the government voting and likened it to a “circus” and a “show,” Ali Khamenei claimed on Wednesday, July 3rd: “The idea that those who did not vote in the first round are against the regime is completely wrong.”
This comes after he had emphasized the importance of participation in the voting before the recent vote to replace Raisi, saying that “high participation” would bring “pride to the Islamic Republic.”
Additionally, the regime’s Ministry of Interior sent text messages urging people to participate in the elections. The lack of public participation in these elections is unprecedented in the history of the Iranian regime.
During the nationwide protests in 2022, people chanted, “Reformist, hardliner, the game is over,” indicating that Iranians have moved beyond all factions of the ruling regime and that whoever wins in the electoral circus will not affect their fate.
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), referred to the election boycott by the people in a message on her X account and said:
Congratulations to the Iranian people for their determination to overthrow the religious dictatorship. This marks another crushing sledgehammer of a boycott to the principle of the velayat-e faqih (absolute clerical rule) and Khamenei's farcical electoral masquerade.
The…— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) July 5, 2024
