- Iran is holding by-elections amid economic hardship and social unrest with a historically low turnout of 39.9%.
- More than 1 million ballots have been rejected in the Middle Eastern country.
- The second round includes hardline former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and reformist heart surgeon Masoud Pezeshkian.
More than 20 years ago, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stood before a crowd during Friday prayers and denounced Pakistan. United States of america For his disgruntled voters.
“It is shameful for a country to have a voter turnout of 35% or 40%, as is the case in some countries where presidential elections are held,” Khamenei said in 2001. “It is clear that their people do not trust their political system, they do not care about it and they have no hope.”
Iran now faces the same situation the Ayatollah described.
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Iran will hold a presidential election on Friday, its second since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, as only 39.9% of voters turned out to cast a ballot last week. Of the more than 24.5 million votes cast, more than 1 million were later rejected – usually a sign that people are compelled to go to the polls but want to reject all candidates.
Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, a hardline former nuclear negotiator, addresses a group of athlete supporters during a campaign at a sports hall in Tehran, Iran June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Meanwhile, there is public anger after Iran’s economy has plummeted to new lows for several years, as well as a bloody crackdown on dissent, including mass protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 after the country’s morality police reportedly detained her for not wearing a hijab as she preferred. Tensions with the West remain high as Iran continues to enrich uranium closer to weapons-grade levels than ever before.
Now, hardline former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili faces reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who likely needs a landslide to win the presidency. Pezeshkian’s supporters warn of bad days ahead under Jalili. Meanwhile, many are unconvinced that their vote counts.
“I did not vote and I won’t vote because no one has apologized for what young people had to face during Mahsa and its aftermath, neither the reformists nor the hardliners,” said Leila Sayyidi, a 23-year-old university student studying graphic design.
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According to Iranian election law, a candidate must receive more than 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff election. In results released on Saturday, Pezeshkian received 10.4 million votes, while Jalili received 9.4 million. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf came in third with 3.3 million votes, while Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi received more than 206,000 votes.
Analysts say most voters of Qalibaf, a former general and national police chief in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard who is known for his crackdown on students and corruption allegations, will vote for Jalili after Qalibaf endorsed him. Jalili, 58, known as a “living martyr” for losing a leg in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, has thus emerged as a front-runner for the runoff.
But his hawkish image among Western diplomats during negotiations with Iran Nuclear Program There remains concern at home about his views. One politician who has aligned himself with the liberals, Iran’s former information and communications technology minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, describes the choice between Jalili and Pezeshkian even more starkly.
“We will not let Iran fall into the hands of the Taliban,” he wrote on the social platform X.
Iranian presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian and his supporters show a victory sign during a campaign on June 23, 2024 in Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
But such dire warnings had little effect. After voting on June 28, many people on the streets of Tehran told The Associated Press that they did not care about the election.
“I didn’t vote because the former president failed to keep his promises,” said Ahmad Taheri, a 27-year-old psychology student. “I won’t vote this coming Friday either.”
Mohammad Ali Robti, a 43-year-old electronics engineer and father of two, said he did not vote because of Iranian authorities’ indifference to people’s economic pressures.
“After many years of economic difficulties, I have no interest in politics,” Robati said, though he raised the possibility of voting on Friday.
In this photo provided by Iranian state TV, IRIB, Iranian presidential candidates Saeed Jalili (left), a hardline former nuclear negotiator, and reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian greet each other at the conclusion of a debate at the TV studio in Tehran, Iran, June 1, 2024. (Morteza Fakhri Nezhad/IRIB via AP)
At the time of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the exchange rate for Iran’s currency was 32,000 rials per $1. Today, it’s 617,000 rials per $1 — and many people have found the value of their bank accounts, retirement funds and other holdings eroded by years of devaluation. That’s close to its record low of 700,000 rials, which it briefly reached in April after Iran launched an unprecedented direct attack on Israel.
Meanwhile, anger continues to simmer over Amini’s death in September 2022. United Nations Investigators said Iran’s government was responsible for “physical violence” that led to months of protests and a security crackdown that left more than 500 people dead and more than 22,000 detained. Less than two years later, hardliners within Iran’s theocracy have launched a fresh crackdown on the hijab.
“The level of voter participation and blank ballots reflect public rejection of the regime’s policies, particularly its crackdown on critics and women who refuse to comply with full head-covering laws,” the New York-based Soufan Center think tank said in an analysis on Monday.
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Pezeshkian wrote on X that his government would oppose police enforcement of the hijab and restrictions on the internet. However, Tahereh Namazi, a 31-year-old math teacher, said she did not vote because none of the candidates made any clear promises on these issues.
Those who did not vote and spoke to AP said it was their own decision and not part of any organised boycott.
Whether voters will listen to Pezeshkian on Friday remains a question. In recent days, he has repeatedly cited the story of the “selfless farmer,” a tale told to nearly every Iranian child at school. The story is about a farmer in 1961 who took off his shirt and set it on fire to warn a train about rocks blocking the tracks.
Those who abstained from taking part in the elections believe that the train has already crashed.
