{"id":22283,"date":"2021-05-28T06:00:13","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T04:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/?p=22283"},"modified":"2021-05-27T21:03:55","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T19:03:55","slug":"iran-election-2021-list-of-candidates-reinforces-citizens-rejection-of-the-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/articles\/2021\/05\/iran-election-2021-list-of-candidates-reinforces-citizens-rejection-of-the-regime\/22283\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Election 2021: List of Candidates Reinforces Citizens\u2019 Rejection of the Regime"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The final list of candidates for the Iranian regime\u2019s sham presidential election was announced on Tuesday, May 25. Those candidates\u2019 identities confirm what the Iranian Resistance has long said: that the election itself will be a mere farce, lending a thin veneer of legitimacy to a process that is effectively the installation of a pre-selected successor to the regime\u2019s current President Hassan Rouhani<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leading candidate, Ebrahim Raisi<\/a>, was very nearly given that position four years ago. His ascendance was very clearly backed by the regime\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The questionable nature of the Iranian regime\u2019s so-called electoral process was made a matter of public record throughout the globe in 2009, when thousands upon thousands of Iranians participated in protests in response to the reselection of the regime\u2019s then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fearing Iranian people\u2019s uprising amid the regime\u2019s infightings, Khamenei in 2017 selected Rouhani. The regime\u2019s sham presidential election also showed a general decrease in voter participation \u2013 a feature that the regime officials attempted to cover up by extending voting hours, manipulating statistics, and staging crowded scenes at polling places using members of the militia group known as the Basij.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the middle of January 2018, well over 100 cities and towns were participating in a protest movement that featured chants of both \u201cdeath to the dictator,\u201d in reference to Khamenei, and \u201cdeath to Rouhani,\u201d the so-called rival to \u201chardline\u201d faction. Protesters also explicitly rejected the notion of significant political differences between the regime\u2019s two factions, saying, \u201creformist, hardliner, the game is over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Reformists, hardliners, this games is over!\" chants by ppl in Vali-Asr Square in Tehran this afternoon make clear that #Iran<\/a> ppl place no hope in so-called \"moderates\" inside the regime. They want regime change. (video via MEK activists). #IranProtests<\/a> #No2Rouhani<\/a> #FreeIran<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/LAXeGvIqMe<\/a><\/p>\u2014 M. Hanif Jazayeri (@HanifJazayeri) December 31, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote>