VOA – None of the candidates for president proposed by the Iranian regime secured the necessary votes, the Ministry of Interior said Saturday. The top two vote-getters, Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili, will advance to a runoff next Friday.
The nationwide participation rate, as reported by contested data, stands at 40%, marking the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic.
More than 24 million votes were cast in the election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi. Pezeshkian won 42.4% of the vote; Jalili won 38.6%, according to Iran’s elections authority. Conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf won 13.8% and conservative cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi, got less than 1%.
“None of the candidates could garner the absolute majority of the votes,” electoral authority spokesperson Mohsen Eslami said.
The government’s claim of a 40% participation rate, based on official statistics announced recently, shows the continuing decline in public engagement in elections under the Islamic Republic.
Participation in the 2019 parliamentary elections, held during Hassan Rouhani’s administration, was reported at 42%. The 2021 presidential election, concurrent with city and village council elections, allegedly saw a turnout of 48%, according to government claims, with more than 13% of votes deemed invalid.
The participation rate for last year’s parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections in March was similarly reported at 41%.
Despite extensive efforts and widespread propaganda by the Islamic Republic to mobilize voters, reports from social media users and images from Iran indicated a low turnout among Iranians.
About 77% of the eligible voters in the Greater Tehran area refused to vote for the government’s presidential candidates, according to official numbers.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a political coalition of Iranian opposition groups and individuals that call for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, cited reports Saturday from what it referred to as the “Social Headquarters inside Iran.” It stated that “overall, less than 7.4 million people, representing just 12% of eligible voters, participated either voluntarily or under pressure in the clerical regime’s presidential election.”
The council emphasized: “As a result, 88% of Iranians boycotted the sham presidential elections of the Khamenei regime, decisively rejecting the religious dictatorship. They declared that their ultimate vote was for the overthrow of the regime.”
Many protesters, families of victims, political and civil activists, along with various political organizations, had previously declared their refusal to participate in the “governmental appointments” and the “circus of elections.”
Political prisoners in Evin Prison also abstained from participating in the voting process.
“It’s shameful for a government when only 35% to 40% of eligible voters participate in their presidential elections. Clearly, their people have neither trust in the political system nor confidence nor hope,” Mehdi Mahmoudian, a human rights activist and former political prisoner, said on X the social media platform.
Hossein Ronaghi, a political activist and former prisoner of the Islamic Republic, also spoke out: “The widespread boycott and non-participation of the people in the farcical and fake elections of the Islamic Republic demonstrate the opposition, dissatisfaction, and protest of the Iranian public towards the current situation. It serves as a resounding ‘no’ to the entire ‘Islamic Republic’ government that has occupied Iran for decades and kept the people in captivity.”