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Iran
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani bows to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the supreme leader’s meeting with officials and ambassadors from Islamic countries in Tehran, June 26, 2017. File photo: Khamenei.ir
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani urged voters on Sunday to turn out for the upcoming parliamentary election, even if the nation’s hardliners have barred many moderate candidate from running.
Rouhani’s call follows a poll by Tehran University, which found up to 75 percent of people eligible to vote in the Iranian capital will not bother casting their ballot.
“Without a doubt, passionate and maximum participation is in our interest. Americans would not be happy to see the maximum participation of the people,” Rouhani told a press conference in Tehran on Sunday.
The Iranian president was once perceived as a reformist and a moderate, presiding over the brief détente with Washington after signing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Since the US withdrew from the deal and reimposed sanctions, Rouhani has been under mounting hardliner pressure to take a tougher approach to the Americans.
The Guardian Council, responsible for vetting parliamentary candidates, has barred more than 7,000 mostly moderate candidates from running on charges ranging from being un-Islamic to committing financial crimes.
The purge has left many in the reformist camp angry and disillusioned with the system, with many now urging voters to boycott the election.
“Ninety-three percent of participants in this poll said that they were not happy with the way the country is managed,” Ahmad Naderi of Tehran University’s social studies department told Farsnews. “In Tehran, 24.2 percent of people say they will take part in the election.”
Sensing danger, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s ultimate decision maker, urged all parties to stop criticizing the system and instead unite in the face of the American-led onslaught against the country and encourage people to participate.
“Anyone who loves the security of the country, who loves to see the problems of the country resolved, who loves to see a proper cyclical change of elites in the country should participate in the elections,” Khamenei said on February 5. “Everyone should participate.”
Rouhani said 44 constituencies would be uncontested between hardline and reformist candidates despite the purge.
“I asked and according to the latest reports only in 44 polling stations there is no competition… I am glad there is competition in most of the constituencies and in those places where there is no competition people must take part even if there is no one from their own party.”
“We are all Iranians and we could elect someone from the rival party who is better and more virtuous and could be beneficial for the country in the parliament.”
Hardliners are expected to make big gains following the purge of the moderates, paving the way for the return of a hardliner in next year’s presidential election.
Iranians are going to the polls on February 21 to elect 290 parliamentarians at a time when the country is reeling from two years of maximum economic pressure imposed by the Trump administration.
The US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and has steadily mounted further sanctions on Tehran. Iran’s oil exports have dropped from more than 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) in April 2018 to 300,000 bpd in recent months, leaving a gaping hole in government coffers.
The Iranian public is increasingly questioning whether their votes have any impact on the direction of the Islamic Republic, as the economic crisis takes its toll on communities. Protests in November against the hike in petrol prices were brutally suppressed, as were demonstrations over the government’s attempt to cover up the shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January.
Authorities, including Rouhani, have refused to say how many people were killed in November’s protests.
Prominent human rights activists lingering in jail have urged Iranians to boycott the election.
A group of students from Tehran University held a picket on Sunday calling on authorities to free political prisoners and condemned the government’s handling of the November protests and the airline disaster.
More than 75 percent of Iranians depend on government handouts since the currency lost 60 percent of its value. The inflation rate is running at 40 percent with youth unemployment standing at around 30 percent. Public anger is palpable across the country.
The election is also taking place at a time when Iran’s relations with its neighbors and the West are at a nadir. The killing of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)’s extraterritorial Quds Force, in a US drone strike in Baghdad has caused the establishment in Tehran to close ranks and unite against an external enemy.
Soleimani’s death has made it near impossible for Rouhani’s government to make overtures to the remaining members of the 2015 nuclear deal, including France, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
The three European powers triggered the dispute mechanism under the 2015 nuclear deal on January 14 after Iran said it would no longer abide by restrictions on its enrichment of uranium. The special purpose vehicle to support legitimate trade with Iran known as INSTEX is yet to become fully operational.
Iran was expected to enact legislation to counter money laundering and the financing of terrorism by early February, but hardliners on the Expediency Discernment Council have blocked the law, which was passed in parliament.
Majid Ansari, a member of the Expediency Discernment Council, warned on Twitter on Sunday: “Not enacting the FATF [legislation] means the paralysis of external trade with the whole world, an increase in the price of foreign currency, and increasing pressure on people’s livelihoods.”
The Paris based Financial Action Task Force set up in 1989 to counter money laundering expanded its remit in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to include countering the finance of terrorism. It is expected to make a final decision soon about Iran’s stance in not adhering to its commitments.
In the 11th parliamentary election since the 1979 revolution, 57,918,000 million people are eligible to vote, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told Iran TV on Saturday.
Of this number, around 2,900,000 are first-time voters.
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