{"id":22606,"date":"2021-06-15T18:17:38","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T16:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/?p=22606"},"modified":"2021-06-15T18:17:39","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T16:17:39","slug":"iranian-election-boycott-all-but-certain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranfreedom.org\/en\/articles\/2021\/06\/iranian-election-boycott-all-but-certain\/22606\/","title":{"rendered":"Iranian Election Boycott All But Certain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With just a few days until the Iranian presidential elections<\/a>, regime officials are terrified of a low voter turnout, with state media admitting that 90% of students are not going to vote<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The presidential debates only increased the problems because candidates spent their time accusing one another of stealing from and lying to the Iranian people. For instance, former vice president Mohsen Mehralizadeh brought up the crackdown on the November 2019<\/a> uprising to attack judiciary chief\u00a0 Ebrahim Raisi<\/a>, while former Central Bank Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati acknowledged that public dissatisfaction may lead to a widespread election boycott. Expediency Discernment Council member Mohammad Hashemi Rafsanjani even acknowledged that the debates mean nothing and even hurt the candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout all this, the Iranian public has been calling on their fellow citizens to boycott the election. This includes the mothers of those killed during the 2019 uprisings, who\u2019ve posted many videos to social media with these calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran Alahyari, who is the mother of martyr Mehrdad Moinfar, said<\/a>: \u201cI will not forgive nor forget the blood of my only son. They have destroyed my life and I have suffered so much pain. Because of the pain of all mothers and fathers like myself, I will not vote. My vote is regime change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is not as simple as boycotting one election, it is a rejection of the whole system with many openly calling for the overthrow of the regime and supreme leader\u00a0 Ali Khamenei<\/a>, bolstered by the activism\u00a0 of the Resistance Units, who\u2019ve been campaigning for the boycott since April with the clear message: \u201cMy vote is regime change, boycott regime sham elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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