In recent days, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran’s (PMOI/MEK) Resistance Units has been stepping up their anti-regime activities as part of a campaign urging people to boycott the upcoming sham presidential elections in June.

In many cities, they put up handwritten posters with the slogans: “No to the election of the mullahs, no to mullahs’ rule, yes to a democratic republic”, “[Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei must go”, and “We hope for a democratic republic”.

Pictures of Iranian Resistance leaders Maryam Rajavi and Massoud Rajavi were installed in the cities of Tehran, Kermanshah, Mashhad, and Isfahan featuring the slogans:

• “An all-out boycott of the sham election is the Iranian people’s rejection of the mullahs’ dictatorship; our vote is for a democratic republic”
• “The Iranian people’s nationwide boycott of this election is the flip side of popular uprisings”
• “For the Iranian people, the mullahs’ sham election has no legitimacy”

Meanwhile, in the cities of Sonqor, Karaj, Khorramabad, Kerman, Rasht, Ardabil, and Lahijan, Resistance Units used graffiti to share anti-regime slogans, “Our vote is to overthrow the mullahs’ regime”.

As always, many took part in activities online with several members of Resistance Units posting video messages advocating for boycotting the elections.

A young man from Tehran said: “In the new year, we will overcome and overthrow the mullahs. I invite all my compatriots to boycott the sham elections. My vote is to overthrow the mullahs’ regime and yes to a democratic republic.”

While a young woman from Ardabil said that its “time to overthrow Khamenei and his corrupt regime”, and a teenager from Lahijan said that this year, Khamenei would be overthrown and Maryam Rajavi would be back in Iran.

Their videos prove that the Iranian people are ready and desperate for regime change, remaining hopeful that a better future is on the horizon, even if it is currently very bleak due to repression and the pandemic.

The regime has, as a result of these protests, become more concerned about the MEK’s growing influence on young people. This is likely one of the reasons that the regime has recently been rounding up MEK supporters and their relatives, as well as increasing pressure on MEK prisoners. They are terrified that an election boycott will showcase their illegitimacy to the world and increase the chance of regime overthrow in the coming months.

Khamenei said as much in his New Year speech and called for stricter controls on social media to prevent protests from being organised.