Iran
The government is hoping for a strong turnout to head off claims that people are rejecting the regime by staying at home
Iranians voted for a new parliament on Friday, with turnout at just 27% after 10 hours and just 12% after eight hours in Tehran.
To increase voter turnout, officials unexpectedly announced that polls statewide would open two hours until 10 p.m. They predicted the final figure would be higher than the 42.5% recorded in the last election for parliamentary seats in 2020.
The Iranian regime is placing great emphasis on increasing voter turnout above the historic lows seen in 2020, believing that strong political engagement can fend off claims that it no longer has legitimacy or is unable to carry out the basic Requirements of turnout to meet Iranian people for economic progress and personal freedom.
Iranians are expected to avoid the first election since the death of Mahsa Amini
Anti-regime social media showed, although inconclusively, nearly empty polling stations, but a spokesman for the Guardian Council, the body that vets candidates, said there were no problems with the election and turnout would return to 2020 levels to reach.
Authorities said they had extended polling hours due to the increasing number of eligible voters, but opposition groups said it was a panic measure.
Voter turnout in 2016 was 62%.
It is a foregone conclusion that the increasingly factional hardliners will increase their influence over parliament and the Council of Experts, an 88-member body tasked with naming the next supreme leader if incumbent Ali Khamenei dies.
Many reformists were barred from running, making the election a farce in the eyes of many voters who already believe that the country is run not by politicians but by sections of the security services and the army.
The reformist movement has been in steady decline for years and was damaged by the previous Prime Minister Hassan Rouhani, who supported him in the elections even though he was not a reformist. He proved unable to effect change during his two four-year terms, one of which was marred by the Covid outbreak that killed thousands of Iranians.
Up to 10 million people are eligible to vote in Tehran province, and voter turnout is likely to be lowest there. Balochistan province has been hit by floods and is also expected to see low voter turnout.
Rouhani was succeeded as prime minister by Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner and former judge who is close to the supreme leader and has led the country toward a pro-Russian and anti-Western stance.
Internal telephone polls conducted 24 hours before the election showed that three quarters of the population had no intention of voting and only 16% definitely planned to do so. Three-quarters of respondents said they would not vote because of their opposition to the Islamic Republic or the lack of free and fair elections.
A challenge for the regime in the coming days will be to release accurate voter turnout results when they show that only about a third of the country voted and two-thirds rejected the regime by staying at home. Concerns were expressed on social media that invalid votes would be counted as part of the voter turnout. Official state news agencies began deleting previously released turnout figures for certain provinces as the numbers did not increase throughout the day.
To suppress the boycott movement, police officers in West Azerbaijan province announced the identification and arrest of 50 “virtual site operators” who had “disrupted public sentiment and called for non-participation in the elections.”
In a sign of the ongoing repression alienating millions of voters, the regime used Election Day to announce that an Iranian court had sentenced Grammy winner Shervin Hajipour to nearly four years in prison. His song Baraye became the anthem of the Women, Life, Freedom protests in 2022, with versions played at Coldplay concerts. He was also ordered to write music critical of the US.
Hajipour was sentenced to eight months in prison for “propaganda against the establishment” and three years in prison for “inciting and provoking the public to riot to disrupt national security.” Hajipour will only serve the longer of the two sentences.
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