DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — More than two decades ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stood before a crowd at Friday prayers and blamed the United States for a disappointed electorate.
“It is a national shame when voter turnout is only 35 or 40 percent, as we see in some countries that hold presidential elections,” Khamenei said in 2001. “It is clear that the people have no faith in the political system, no interest and no hope.”
Iran now faces the situation the Ayatollah described.
Iran A presidential runoff election will be held on Friday, the second since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Although only 39.9% of eligible voters voted. Last week, more than 1 million of the more than 24.5 million votes were later rejected, a classic sign that people feel obliged to go to the polls but also want to reject all candidates.
Meanwhile, public anger has simmered amid Iran's economy slumping to an all-time low and a bloody crackdown on dissent, including mass protests sparked by his 2022 death. Mahasa Amini She was detained by the country's morality police after they said she was not comfortable wearing a headscarf, and tensions with the West remain high. Iran moves closer to weapons-grade uranium than ever before.
Now hardline former nuclear negotiator Saeed Djalili is facing off against reformist heart surgeon Masoud Pezeshkian, who will likely need broad support to win the election. Pezeshkian's supporters warn of dark days ahead under Djalili, while many people don't even believe their vote counts.
More than 50 countries will hold elections in 2024
“I didn't vote and I never will because no one, reformists or hardliners, has apologized for Martha's death or the misery young people face in its aftermath,” said Leila Seyedi, a 23-year-old university student studying graphic design.
Iran's electoral law requires a candidate to receive more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. In results released Saturday, Pezeshkian received 10.4 million votes and Jalili 9.4 million. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf came in third with 3.3 million votes, while Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi received more than 206,000 votes.
Analysts say many of Qalibaf's supporters, a former Iranian Revolutionary Guards general and national police chief known for his crackdown on students and corruption allegations, are likely to defect to Jalili after he endorsed him, helping put the 58-year-old “living martyr” who lost a leg in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war to the top of the runoff vote.
But his reputation among Western diplomats as a stubborn figure during negotiations over Iran's nuclear program has been mixed with concern at home about his views. One politician aligned with the moderates is Iran's former minister of information and communications technology. Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromimaking Jalili and Pezeshkian's choice even clearer.
“We will not allow Iran to fall into the hands of the Taliban,” he wrote on social platform X.
But even such dire warnings seemed to have no effect. On the streets of Tehran after the June 28 vote, many people told The Associated Press that they didn't care about the election.
“I didn't vote because the previous presidents didn't deliver on their promises,” said Ahmad Taheri, a 27-year-old psychology major. “I don't plan on voting this Friday either.”
Mohammed Ali Robati, a 43-year-old electronics engineer and father of two, said he did not vote because of Iranian authorities' apparent indifference to the economic pressures on its people.
“After years of economic hardship, I'm not interested in politics,” Lovatti said, but left open the possibility that he would vote on Friday.
When Iran signed the nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, the Iranian currency was trading at 32,000 rials to the dollar. Today, it's trading at 617,000 rials to the dollar, and many have seen their bank accounts, retirement savings and other assets erode after years of currency depreciation. The Iranian currency is approaching a record high of 700,000 rials, hit in November 2015. Unprecedented direct attack by Iran on Israel During April.
Meanwhile, outrage over Amini's death in September 2022 continues. The UN investigators The Iranian government has taken responsibility for the “physical violence” that led to the incident, which came less than two years after months of protests and security crackdowns that have left more than 500 people dead and over 22,000 detained. Hardliners within the theocratic state of Iran Renewed crackdown on hijabs.
“The high turnout and blank votes signal a rejection of the administration's policies, particularly its repression of critics and women who refuse to comply with the law requiring full head coverings,” the SouFan Center, a New York-based think tank, said in an analysis on Monday.
Pezeshkian wrote to X that the government would fight police enforcement of the hijab and internet censorship. But Tahereh Namazi, a 31-year-old math teacher, said she wasn't voting because neither candidate had made clear commitments on those issues.
Those who did not vote and spoke to The Associated Press said their decision was their own and not part of an organized boycott.
The question is whether voters will listen to Pezeshkian's comments on Friday, as he has repeatedly cited in recent days the story of the “selfless farmer” told to nearly every child in Iranian schools: the story of a farmer in 1961 who took off his shirt and set it on fire to warn a train of a rock blocking the tracks.
Those who don't participate in the election believe the train has already hit.
___
Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran. Amir Vahdat in Tehran contributed to this report.
