Some 592 candidates have registered for the Iranian presidential elections, but the majority are mere pawns who will be disqualified by the Guardian Council, which vets all election candidates and whose members are chosen directly or indirectly by supreme leader Ali Khamenei, so cannot be impartial in its decision.

Of course, this should be of no surprise. Elections under the Iranian regime have nothing to do with democracy because they automatically eliminate any candidate who doesn’t swear undying loyalty to Khamenei, even though the people have made it clear on multiple occasions that what they really want is regime change.

Who is running?

Well, first, let’s look at the latest announcements: judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, who is infamous for his role on the death commissions during the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, and former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, who set up censorship on state radio and television during the 1980s.

Other candidates include:

• Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri
• Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
• Senior IRGC commander Hossein Dehghan
• Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council Mohsen Rezaee
• Former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili
• Former head of the IRGC Khatam Al-Anbia Garrison Saeed Mohammad
• Former head of the regime’s Atomic Energy Organization Fereydoon Abbasi
• MP Shamseddin Hosseini
• MP Sadeq Khalilian
• Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare Mohammad Shariatmadari
• Chairman of Tehran City Council Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani
• Senior IRGC commander Ezzatollah Zarghami
• Head of the Majlis Research Center Alireza Zakani
• Senior IRGC commander Rostam Ghasemi
• Former Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh
• Former Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Ahmad Akhoundi
• Former Health Minister Masoud Pezeshkian
• Former MP Hassan Sobhani
• Former Minister of Cooperatives Mohammad Abbasi
• MP Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi
• Former Vice President Mohsen Mehralizadeh
• Former MP Mostafa Kavakebian
• Former deputy Majlis speaker Ali Motahari
• Former head of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati

None of these candidates is innocent when it comes to crimes conducted against the Iranian people and none should be rewarded for that with the presidency, which is why most Iranians look set to boycott the elections. Turnout is estimated to be a maximum of 40%. As the regime deals with the boycott and factional infighting, there are also mass protests by the people that have been met with brutality. Given this alone, there should be grave concerns over the regime’s ability to handle its crises, whether foreign or domestic, and this should encourage people to boycott the elections.