Many Iranians are boycotting their votes, despite the pleas and roses from officials at the polls

Iran held parliamentary elections on Friday, but despite last-minute efforts by officials to boost turnout with pleas on social media and roses at polling stations, many people stayed away from the vote in protest against the government, witnesses said. interviews and news reports.

In the capital Tehran, turnout was estimated at 11 percent, and across the country the turnout was around 30 percent to 40 percent, even as polling stations extended their opening hours to 10 p.m. from 8 p.m., according to news reports and the hard numbers. line up with parliamentary candidate Ali Akbar Raefipour a message on social media.

The current speaker of parliament, General Mohammad Ghalibaf, a Revolutionary Guards commander who is running for re-election on a conservative ticket, took to the social media platform X on Friday to implore people to call at least ten others. and encourage them to vote.

“It is not just winning the elections that matters, increasing participation is also a priority,” said General Ghalibaf said in his post.

Many ordinary Iranians are fed up with a faltering economy – and the government’s oppressive regulations violent repressions about peaceful protests – their demands for change go far beyond what the existing political parties, with their reformist and conservative factions, offer.

Before the vote, Calls for a widespread boycott of the elections had gained momentum, with prominent activists and dissidents encouraging Iranians to turn the occasion into an anti-government protest. The prisoners Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi said in a statement that boycotting the vote was a “moral obligation.”

In protests that broke out in 2022 in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s death while men and women under the auspices of the moral police chanted for an end to cleric rule in Iran with the slogan “Reformists, conservatives, the game is over.”

“This system has done nothing positive to improve people’s lives,” said Marziyeh, a 59-year-old woman from the southwestern city of Ahvaz who, like many interviewed, insisted on giving only her first name for fear of retaliation.

Fromer President Mohammad Khatami, father of the Reform Party, did not vote, according to his former vice president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi. This was the first time Mr Khatami had chaired an election. He was apparently the highest-ranking politician in Iran to boycott the vote.

The Reformist Front, a coalition of parties, said there were no candidates in the race and called it a “pointless, uncompetitive and ineffective election.”

In recent years, elections in Iran have been competitive and participation has exceeded 50 percent. But on Friday, amid falling turnout, state television tried to tell a different story.

It showed selected polling stations in Tehran where officials cast their ballots and government supporters lined up to vote, showing their ID cards to the camera. State television also showed polling stations in smaller towns where voters could cast their votes.

President Ebrahim Raisi said on state television after casting his vote that the elections were a “symbol of national cohesion and unity, and all political groups came today with their candidates to celebrate a glorious day for the Iranian nation. ”

Hatef Salehi, 38, an analyst employed by the Tehran Municipality, said in an interview: “I voted because I still think that the best way to change the political and social system from radicalization is through gradual reforms and the ballot box.”

But residents in several locations – major cities like Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz and smaller towns like Sari and Larijan – said in interviews that polling stations in their neighborhoods were largely empty and that only the government’s most loyal supporters had turned out to vote. , while many other Iranians choose not to leave their homes.

A 23-year-old university student in Tehran who asked that his name not be used for fear of retaliation said he and his friends did not vote because “prisoners don’t vote for their prison guards.”

Separate elections were held for the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member spiritual body responsible for appointing, advising and monitoring the supreme leader. The upcoming meeting is expected to appoint the successor to the current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 84 and has served in the role for more than three decades.

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New ways to attract voters to the vote were on display in Tehran. At the monumental Hosseinieh Ershad, a religious and cultural center that serves as a polling station, a man handed out long-stemmed roses to people waiting in line. A young couple appeared in their wedding clothes. And downtown, a pop singer organized a concert at Talar Vahdat, a cultural venue that became a polling place for artists, musicians and actors.

At a news conference on Friday, Mohsen Eslami, the spokesman for the country’s election headquarters, named a handful of provinces as leading in turnout. But they were mainly smaller provinces such as Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, in the west, and Kerman, in the east, and Qom, the government’s religious stronghold, in the center of the country.

The Conservatives are expected to win and maintain their hold on parliament. They are virtually unchallenged, as most of their rivals from independent, centrist and reformist political factions were disqualified from the race.

Official results are expected within a few days, although officials are known to announce results by province within 24 hours.

Despite the reformist factions having no candidates on the ballot, divisions emerged among members, with some prominent figures showing up to vote, including Behzad Nabavi and Mohammad Reza Aref.

Saeid Nourmohammadi, the spokesman for the Neday-e-Iranian party, which identifies as reformist, said his party supported about 30 candidates it considered more centrist and close to the reformists.

“Historically, we have not gained anything by boycotting the elections,” Mr. Nourmohammadi said. “Even if there is no possibility of winning the elections, we still have to make efforts to win some seats in parliament.”

A 40-year-old engineer named Mahdiyeh from Tehran said she had participated in every election until a few years ago, but the candidates she supported had failed to bring about any tangible changes. She said she wasn’t going to vote this time.

“Right now I’m not going to vote,” she said in an interview. “I can’t find a candidate who could possibly represent me.”