Iranian leaders hail elections as 'national celebration'

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iranian leaders are hailing elections as a patriotic duty, urging a populace battered by sanctions and repression to get to the polls.

Friday’s elections are for the 290-seat Parliament and the 88-member Assembly of Experts, the body that elects the Supreme Leader in Iran.  

There are 7,148 candidates are standing for office. Many reformist and dissident candidates had their candidacy rejected by the Guardian Council’s qualification process.

“[An] election is a national celebration. I congratulate all of the people everywhere. This is also the day in which the civil rights of people are obtained, in which the people wish to vote and have a say in how the state is run,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said after he cast his vote on Friday.

“The truth is that elections ensure the national interests of the country,” Khamenei posited, claiming it is a “religious duty” to participate in elections.

“My suggestion for the people is for them to come and cast their votes for the people they want.”

98% of ballot boxes have been connected through an online system, claimed President Hassan Rouhani. “It is a positive thing to be aware instant by instant how many people have cast their votes and how many are voting currently,” he stated.

“We are very happy that a bright day in the honorable history of our country and revolution is recorded,” President Rouhani told reporters after he cast his vote.

He added, “I hope our people will create a new proud moment so that our enemies are disappointed further.”

Iran’s economy has been battered by US economic sanctions since the US withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear deal in May 2018. Since then, the income of Iranians has decreased by half due to the sinking value of the Iranian Rial and a dramatic decrease in oil exports due to US sanctions.

Moreover, November protests across the country against gas price hikes, which eventually turned into anti-regime protests, were repressed with an iron fist. As many as 1,500 Iranian protesters were killed by government forces, leaving many citizens with a simmering anger at their government. 

This anger only increased when the Iranian government accidentally shot down a passenger plane as it departed from Tehran airport in January, killing all 176 people on board.

While some observers anticipated low voter turnout, General Hossein Rahimi, commander of the Iranian capital Tehran’s police force, claimed that “long queues” have formed at the polling stations. Fourteen thousand police force members protect Tehran metropolis’ 4,552 polling stations.

Iranian Minister of Interior Abdulreza Rahmani Fazli told state media that there are about 55,000 voting stations. About one million people monitor elections.

“Wherever anything happens [in election centers], we will monitor it and issue necessary orders.”

After casting his vote, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Javad Zarif asserted that the people remain supportive of the regime.

“Our people are the main supporter of the revolution,” Zarif told reporters after he cast his vote.
“To me, who is in charge of foreign policy and diplomacy, they (the people) are the main backer of our diplomacy,” added Zarif.

Head of Election Headquarters Jamal Orf told Tasnim that they have removed the fingerprint requirement of voting devices as a precaution against coronavirus, based on a letter by the Ministry of Health recommending that the requirement be removed. 

The precaution comes in the wake of three new cases of the virus confirmed in the cities of Qom and Arak.

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