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RFL/RE – Almost 300 political, social, and cultural figures in Iran have publicly denounced the forthcoming parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections, calling for people to follow suit and not participate in the “engineered” and “staged” balloting.
“The half-hearted position and status of the institution of elections” in Iran has “reached a more deplorable situation, even compared to the previous elections,” the group of 275 people, including Morteza Alviri, Abdolali Bazargan, Alireza Rajaei, Ali Babachahi, Alireza Alavitabar, and Abolfazl Ghadiani, said in a statement on February 25.
Elections for the parliament, the Majlis, are scheduled for March 1 along with voting to fill the Assembly of Experts, with a majority of would-be candidates already disqualified.
The statement highlighted the extent of the disqualifications of candidates for the 12th round of elections to the Majlis and said the “deadlock of reforms” points to a deepening crisis within the country’s political landscape.
The signatories rejected justifications by some who say that Iranians should still participate even in what is seen as a flawed electoral process, saying that the previous policy of encouraging participation at any cost to push out the Islamic republic’s leaders has not only been fruitless, but in fact contributed to the perpetuation of authoritarianism and political stagnation.SEE ALSO:Iran’s Clerical Rulers Face ‘Legitimacy Crisis’ Ahead Of Elections
Emphasizing the dire state of Iran’s current electoral institution, the activists outline a series of prerequisites for holding genuine, fair, and healthy elections.
These include the demand for freedom of speech, for the activities of opposition parties and associations, for the press and media, and the oversight of independent and impartial bodies on election procedures and outcomes.
The activists said those conditions aren’t present in the upcoming elections, and therefore they “deem it necessary not to participate in the upcoming elections, which are clearly engineered against the public’s sovereignty, and not to give in to this staging.”
The statement also warns that without a genuine revival of the institution of elections, real participation in Iran’s political process is “unattainable,” drawing a bleak comparison to the fate of Lake Urmia, once the largest lake in the Middle East, that has now shrunk to one-10th of its original size.
