Iran confirms 41% participation in the parliamentary elections
After a silence that lasted more than two days, the Iranian Ministry of Interior confirmed that the participation rate in the parliamentary elections and the “Leadership Council of Experts” reached 41 percent, in a record abstention from voting over 45 years, and the official results showed the consolidation of the control of the hard-line conservatives in the parliamentary seats.
Interior Minister Ahmadi Vahidi said that “25 million out of 61 million voters participated in the elections,” noting that the number of invalid votes ranged between 5 and 8 percent.
Earlier today, the spokesman for the Elections Commission of the Ministry of Interior, Mohsen Al-Islami, announced that out of 290 electoral races for Parliament, voters decided 245 seats in the first round. The remaining 45 will need to hold re-elections, which will be held at the latest by the end of next April, as the candidates who qualified for the second round failed to obtain 20 percent of the votes.
16 candidates will run in the second round in Tehran, with 14 seats decided in the capital, for which the authorities have allocated 30 seats, which is the largest electoral district, with a voter population of 10 million.
Of the 245 elected, 200 of them received the support of the extreme conservative camp, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.
The vote was the first since the massive popular protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while she was being held by the “moral police” on the grounds of “poor hijab.”
The counting of votes across Iran, which was done manually, ended by Monday. The authorities did not provide any immediate explanation for not announcing the turnout, although it was readily available to the authorities as each voter was registered electronically when voting.
Minister Wahidi presented his account of the elections that took place on Friday, saying: “I achieved 4 levels; Security, integrity, competition, and participation,” adding: “Despite unprecedented propaganda from enemies to discourage people, and despite some economic difficulties facing people, the people participated in the elections.”
Wahidi described the security of the elections as “ideal,” adding that they “took place in complete security.” He accused the “enemies” of launching “propaganda” campaigns to distort the elections. In this regard, he said: “Intelligence services; Even terrorist groups and enemies of the people have moved to threaten election security.”
Wahidi pointed out that the elections took place “amid the highest standards of integrity.” He described it as “competitive and broad,” and added: “The number of candidates who participated in this period was unprecedented. It was a very intense competition due to the large number of candidates, and the competition was realistic among all categories and groups.”
The reformist Sazandaki newspaper is titled “The Climbing Weeds Win” in a quote from a controversial statement by Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, advisor to the Iranian Supreme Leader for Cultural Affairs, who described the Speaker of Parliament as a plane tree and the rest of the candidates as weeds that climb the tree.
He said: “During this period, the atmosphere was unfavorable. We were constantly witnessing the propaganda of the enemy, which launched a psychological operation against the elections a few months ago. Despite all this, we witnessed the participation and attendance of 25 million at the polls.
Reduce invalid votes
Vahidi downplayed reports about the percentage of invalid votes, saying: “In the whole country, it is 5 percent.” He said: “We have three types of invalid votes: the written name cannot be read due to spelling errors, or people whose applications were not approved.” He added: “Some have tried to capitalize on the concept of invalid votes. This will not produce a result, and will lead to nothing. Trying to belittle the election is wrong. If we count all the invalid votes in the country, it will not exceed 8 percent.”
Some Iranian media reported that this number reached 30%, indicating signs of frustration even among the core supporters of the Islamic Republic, according to Reuters.
Official media quoted the head of the “Reforms Front,” a coalition of reformist parties, Azhar Mansouri, as saying, “The authorities must listen to the silent majority… and reform the method of governance… I hope that they realize before it is too late to correct the damage and harm that this path will cause.”
Vahidi pointed out that there were no electoral violations, and expressed his satisfaction with “electoral ethics.” He continued: “In all stages of the elections, the enemies worked on the cyber threat, but there was good resistance, and the enemies failed in this area.” He went further, speaking of thwarting attempts to create communications disruptions to influence the elections.
The press conference came on my own, hours after a report published by government agencies regarding numbers on the participation rate according to the 31 governorates, and the numbers did not include participation across the country.
The Ministry of Interior’s silence regarding the participation rate raised questions and doubts over a period of two days. But before Vahidi’s statements, he confirmed what the official IRNA agency reported on Saturday about 41 percent participation. Hamshahri newspaper, affiliated with the municipality of Tehran, also reported on Saturday, with the participation of 25 million people. The Fars Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, said that the percentage reached 40 percent.
The Associated Press reported in an analysis, “It remains unclear whether the low turnout was due to voter apathy or an active desire to send a message to Iran’s theocratic regime, although some in the country have pushed for a boycott, including Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi.
The analysis determined that about 45 of the new legislators are considered relatively moderate or independent. The current parliament includes 18 legislators who support the reform movement, and 38 others who have been identified as independent. Of those winning seats, only 11 were women. The current parliament includes 16 female legislators.
Figures published by the Ministry of Interior showed that the participation rate in the capital, Tehran, reached 26.34 percent.
This number is higher than the numbers presented late Saturday by the head of the Strategic Center for Evaluation and Oversight in the Expediency Discernment Council, Yasser Gabrieli, about the participation of 1,813,073 people in Tehran, a rate of 18.1 percent. Iranian media reported on Sunday that the turnout in Tehran was estimated at 24 percent.
Alborz, the province adjacent to the northern regions of Tehran, recorded the second lowest voter turnout at 28 percent. Participation in 8 out of 31 governorates exceeded 50 percent.
Between carpet weaving and matki
With the announcement of the identity of the 14 winners in Tehran, reformist newspapers began speculating about the presidency of Parliament, and the possibility of former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki competing with the current Speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Baqir Qalibaf, who is among the former leaders of the Revolutionary Guards who held political positions and ran for the presidency.
The results of the first round were considered a major loss for Qalibaf, as a result of the failure of his allies in the current parliament in the elections. The results confirmed that 147 current deputies will not continue.
Hussein Marashi said: The Secretary-General of the “Karkzaran” Party, the faction of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said that the election results “cannot be relied upon,” and he added in a statement to his party’s newspaper, “Sazindki,” that “there is no winner in the elections.”
Marashi pointed out that “tribal competition has replaced political competition,” referring to the large number of candidates in areas dominated by tribal and tribal character, which is one of the strategies that the authorities have resorted to to raise the participation rate.
He added: “Social participation centered around nationalities has replaced political participation centered around parties.”
Marashi expected that the rift between the internal political parties would increase.
In turn, the reformist newspaper “Hum Mihin” considered the results produced by the elections “the demise of politics in Iranian society.”
Arman Melli indicated the possibility of removing Qalibaf from the presidency of Parliament, and taking over the position of veteran diplomat, Manouchehr Mottaki, who has become an influential player in the conservative camp in the recent electoral elections.
As for the Hamshahri newspaper, affiliated with the Tehran municipality, which was close to the Revolutionary Guard media during the term of Mayor Ali Reza Zakani, it considered the abstention of 59 percent of Iranians from voting a “big lie.” “Joan” newspaper, the Revolutionary Guards’ platform in the print media, said, “Political trends have changed their skin in the parliamentary elections.”
An ineffective parliament
Iran’s parliament, which has been dominated by hardliners for more than two decades, has little influence on foreign policy or Tehran’s controversial nuclear programme. Such issues are being determined by the highest authority in the country, especially the final say, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The main tasks of Parliament include making laws, approving government projects, including the budget, and some international agreements. All new legislation must be approved by the Guardian Council, half of whose members are appointed directly by Khamenei.
Activists and opposition groups, who argue that a high turnout would give legitimacy to the Islamic Republic, called for a boycott of the elections by circulating the hashtags: “#Vote No Vote” and “#Election Circus” (meaning: “No vote” and “Election circus”). » respectively) on a large scale via the “X” social media platform. Former reformist President Mohammad Khatami was among the critics who did not vote on Friday. Critics and the opposition say the country’s rulers are no longer able to solve the economic crisis caused by a combination of mismanagement, corruption and US sanctions that were re-imposed in 2018 when Washington withdrew from the nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers.
The New York-based Soufan Research Center said: “Friday’s elections seem to have reaffirmed that Iranian policies will not change in the foreseeable future, but the vote showed that the Iranian public is broadly dissatisfied with the path taken by the Islamic Republic.” The parliamentary elections coincided with voting on members of the 88-seat Assembly of Experts. The body is constitutionally charged with naming Khamenei’s successor, who will turn 85 next month.
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2024-03-04 20:03:00
