HISTORIC LOW VOTER TURNOUT IN IRAN SHOWS ‘DISSATISFACTION’ WITH REGIME: EXPERTS

Mon 24 February 2020:

Iran’s interior ministry announced a 42.57 percent voter turnout in Friday’s parliamentary election, the lowest turnout since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The interior ministry released the figure on Sunday with unprecedented delay, but did not give a reason for the wait.

The decision by Iranian authorities to hold back the final voter turnout count “means that they are having a hard time engineering vote results,” according to Behnam Taleblu, an expert on Iran at the Washington-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).

Taleblu said the initial state figure of voter turnout is highly suspect, and that he believes turnout was even lower than 42.57 percent.

The decision by so many Iranians to boycott this election “is indicative of a dissatisfaction with the system and the failure of reform,” said Taleblu in an interview with Al Arabiya English.

Videos and images shared online on Friday showed empty polling stations in several Iranian cities.

A video compilation showing voting precincts in various cities in #Iran. The #Iranian people have boycotted parliamentary elections en masse. This is not due to US policies “emboldening the hardliners,” but the people rejecting the regime in its entirety.pic.twitter.com/E85485f9VC

— Reza Behrouz (@RBehrouzDO) February 21, 2020

Users online also pointed out that Iran’s state TV attributed the same images of voters to several cities in the country in an attempt to exaggerate voter participation.

There are so many videos from different cities in #Iran showing empty polling stations across the country. Meanwhile Iran state TV shows the same voter turning up at different polling stations ? #IranElections2020 pic.twitter.com/eK5Ajge7CG

— Jenan Al Asfoor (@asfoor_jenan) February 21, 2020

Iranian opposition groups and activities, inside and outside the country, had called for boycotting the parliamentary election.

Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi called on her compatriots to boycott the parliamentary election earlier this month to honor those killed in the anti-government protests last November, and not give the regime legitimacy.

An additional 12 Iranian imprisoned female activists also called on their compatriots to boycott the parliamentary election, saying that those who vote would be “endorsing the regime and its crimes.”

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last monarch late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, also called for boycotting the election, saying that “voting in this regime’s sham elections serves to confer legitimacy upon an illegitimate system.”