TEHRAN, Iran: Iranians took part in elections for parliament and key clerics on Friday amid fears of a low turnout, with conservatives expected to increase their power.
According to Tehran State TV, Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, was the first person to cast his vote in the center of Tehran.
This is the first election in Iran since the beginning of mass protests during the arrest of Marta Amini, who was arrested on suspicion of violating the strict dress code for women.
Since the last election, Iran has also been affected by international sanctions, which has led to an economic crisis.
More than 61 million people of Iran’s population of 85 million are eligible to vote for MPs and clerics in the Assembly of Experts, which is responsible for electing Iran’s leader.
However, a state television poll found that more than half of respondents were disinterested in the election, raising concerns about declining voter turnout.
Candidates vetted
Voter participation in the last Iranian parliament elections in 2020 was 42.57%, which is the lowest rate since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Hadi Tahan Nazif, a spokesman for the Guardian Council, which vets the candidates, expressed optimism about Friday’s turnout, saying it was “even better” than four years ago.
Ayatollah Khamenei invited the people to vote and said: On Friday, observers from all over the world will observe our problems.
The Supreme Leader had previously warned that Iran’s enemies want to know whether our people are there or not and added that otherwise they would threaten our security in some way.
The audience, he said, includes the United States as well as “most Europeans, evil Zionists, capitalists and big business.”
Iran considers America, its western allies and Israel as its “enemies” and accuses them of trying to interfere in its internal affairs.
On the eve of the election, the United States declared that the election was unfair.
“I have no expectation that Iran’s elections will be free and fair, and I suspect that a great number of Iranians have no expectation that those elections will be free and fair,” Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesman, told media-men in Washington.
Candidates for parliament representatives are reviewed by the Guardian Council, whose members are appointed or approved by the Supreme Leader.
They approved a total of 15,200 candidates out of about 49,000 applicants to run for the 290 parliamentary seats.
Analysts predict that conservatives and ultra-conservatives, who hold 232 of the 290 seats in the parliament, will dominate the parliament again after disqualifying reformist and moderate candidates.
A coalition of political parties called the Reform Front said it would not participate in “futile, non-competitive and ineffective elections”. “It’s far from free.”
Iran’s reformist former president Mohammad Khatami said in February that Iran was “far from holding free and competitive elections,” the conservative newspaper Javan reported.
Conservatives are also expected to dominate the 88-member Council of Experts, which is made up entirely of male Islamic scholars.
A total of 144 candidates are running, but many hopefuls have been disqualified, including moderate former president Hassan Rouhani.
Meanwhile, the war between Israel and Hamas has heightened tensions in the region, and pro-Tehran groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen are all engaged in conflict with Israel or its Western allies.
This election will also be held in the midst of paralyzing international sanctions and worsening economic problems of Iran with inflation of around 50% and a sharp decline of the rial against the dollar.
