Historic abstentionism in Tehran: 74% of voters decided not to participate in the regime’s presidential polemics

In the capital Tehran, 74% of voters defected Friday in the Iranian presidential elections who saw the winner of ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi after the Guardians Council excluded all major reformist and conservative rivals. This was reported by the electoral headquarters of this city.

At the same time, the controversy arises over the national figure of a participation of 48.8%, officially announced yesterday by the Ministry of the Interior. The Reform Journal Etemad states that by including in the calculations the high percentage of blank and null votes – almost 13% – the actual turnout figure would be 43%, one of the rarest appearances at the polls since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

The objections to the counting of the Conservative front are contrary. The agency TasnimFor example, he claims that the turnout was actually over 50%.

Another reformist newspaper, Arman-e Melli, invites President-elect Raisi to work to gain the same trust “Of the 70% who did not vote, they voted for (the moderate candidate) Hemmati or they voted blank or for nothing.” “Now it’s your turn,” wrote Aftab-e Yazd, also a reformist, addressing the president-elect. Restore the confidence of those who voted or did not vote ”.

Raisi was one of the big favorites in this election due to the lack of real competition after the disqualification of his main opponents. Many voters chose to sit on the sidelines after the list of around 600 candidates, including 40 women, was reduced to seven candidates, all men, excluding a former speaker and a former speaker of parliament. TThree of the shortlisted candidates dropped out two days before Friday’s vote.

“We have seen that the Iranian Interior Minister announced the victory of Ebrahim Raisí as the winner of the elections which took place on Friday, but we also see that the Iranians have been denied the right to choose their own leaders. in a free and fair electoral process “, a spokesperson for the US State Department said yesterday.

The ultra-conservative won the Iranian presidential election with 62.2% of the vote, results which would make him the successor of Hasan Rohani without needing a second round, as accepted by his own rivals.

The extremely low turnout raised the alarm of the opposition, which from exile has assured that “the religious dictatorship is in a downward spiral and must be swept aside”. According to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), a historic group designated by Iran as a terrorist organization and now based mainly in Iraq, through a study carried out on “the reports of more than 1,200 journalists and reporters” linked to opposition media IranNTV, less than 10 percent of the country’s population voted in what he described as an “electoral masquerade.”

Faced with the turnout of 48.8% reported by the Iranian government, the opposition assured that “the mullahs’ regime multiplies the vote count by a factor of five in a futile attempt to legitimize a mass murderer,” said about the president-elect.

Following the elections, the humanitarian NGO Amnesty International called for an investigation for crimes against humanity against the elected president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, accused of participating in the murder, enforced disappearance and torture of political dissidents during his role in the so-called “death commission” during the late 1980s.

Specifically, Amnesty denounces that Raisi participated in a program of extrajudicial executions against thousands of political opponents in the prisons of Evin and Gohardasht, near Tehran, in 1988, while the future president and head of the Iranian justice occupied the functions of deputy prosecutor of the Iranian capital.

As head of Iranian justice, Raisi has chaired, according to Amnesty, “a growing crackdown on human rights that has led to the arbitrary detention of hundreds of dissidents peacemakers, human rights defenders and members of persecuted minority groups ”.

Likewise, and under its control, the judiciary he also granted “general impunity” to those responsible for the execution of hundreds of men, women and children and subjecting thousands of protesters to mass arrests and at least hundreds to enforced disappearances, torture and other evils during and after the national protests of November 2019, the organization accuses.

“The fact that Ebrahim Raisi came to the presidency instead of being investigated for crimes against humanity such as murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran, “the organization said in a statement.

The Secretary General of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, regrets in this regard that “the fact that Ebrahim Raisi has risen to the Presidency instead of being investigated for crimes against humanity of murder, enforced disappearance and torture, is a sad reminder that impunity reigns. in Iran “.

In addition, Callamard regrets that Raisi’s arrival for the presidency took place after “an electoral process developed in a very repressive environment and prohibits women, members of religious minorities and candidates with opposing views from running for office. public “.

This London-based human rights organization has ensured that Raisi has commanded “a spiral of human rights repression” as head of the Iranian judiciary for the past two years. According to Amnesty, this has led to the arrest of “hundreds of peaceful dissidents, human rights defenders and members of persecuted minorities”.

“As part of its mandate, the judiciary has also guaranteed impunity to senior government officials and security forces responsible for the deaths of hundreds of men, women and children,” he said. .

She also accuses him of “mass arrests of thousands of demonstrators and the enforced disappearance of hundreds, in addition to torture and ill-treatment” during and after the wave of protests in November 2019.

Raisi’s figure represents Iran’s return to the hard line after eight years of moderate Hasan Rohaní’s government, in which the 2015 nuclear deal was signed.

With information from ANSA, AFP and EFE

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