Two more hours to vote for the 61 million Iranians who went to the polls. Motivated by high voter turnout, the Tehran Interior Ministry approved them to take part in the parliamentary elections and the Assembly of Experts, where an increase in voters would have been recorded. In reality, it may simply be a move by the regime after polls predicted low voter turnout and found that more than half of respondents were indifferent to the elections. The vote marks the first consultation since mass protests in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, as the Iranian regime adopts an iron fist on the use of the veil and a crackdown on any expression of dissent.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (84 years old) voted in Tehran and appeared before a crowd of journalists while holding the ballot paper. Precisely to encourage voter turnout, Khamenei urged Iranian citizens to do the same. “Make your friends happy and disappoint the bad guys,” he explained. The first results are expected today: around 15,000 candidates are applying for a seat in the 290-member parliament and for the Islamic Consultative Assembly, which has been in office for four years.
Meanwhile, the regime is wasting no time in making its absolute power felt on the civilian population. Singer Shervin Hajipour was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison for “propaganda against the system and inciting unrest.” Shervin was the author of the song “Baraye” (“for”, in Italian: a collection of voices and messages explaining the reasons for the protests), which two years ago became the anthem of the mass demonstrations that resulted from the death of Mahsa Amini were triggered before. The artist himself announced the verdict on his Instagram profile and shared the wording of the verdict: “The defendant was sentenced to three years in prison for propaganda against the system and to an additional eight months in prison for inciting an uprising.” Country”.