‘It’s irrelevant’: Iran’s record low election turnout shows little faith in process

Tehran is holding its breath during the summer months due to the haze that descends upon the congested metropolis. This is not because of political unrest.

Members of Tehran’s young middle class compete to show their contempt for the political system ahead of Friday’s presidential runoff between hardliner Saeed Jalili and the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, an election that could put Iran back on track to engage with the west.

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Two adolescent females claim they don’t even know the names of the candidates while enjoying beverages and removing their headscarves. Angel has participated in the Women, Life, Freedom demonstrations before. These began after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman was being held for reportedly not donning a hijab appropriately, died in police custody. She remarked, “We are really disappointed in what happened.” “After the protests, a lot of promises were made, but none of them were fulfilled. Rather of leaving, they have returned to impose the hijab and return us to the police station. Because of everything we have gone through, it is more dehumanizing and worse in certain aspects. Politics is a pointless endeavor.

Women’s rights analyst Maryan stated: “After Mahsa Amini, there is a great deal of animosity and bitterness. I even know religious folks who refuse to cast a ballot. Whether Pezeshkian or Jalili, it makes no difference because the president is really a puppet.

A man with a ponytail who works as an oil engineer acknowledges that he saw the conclusion of the two-hour television discussion between the candidates on Monday. He says he will likely vote against Jalili and that he knows of others who believe that the hardliner’s election would be the same as the Taliban gaining control.

We can’t turn into North Korea or any other isolated society. Iran’s geopolitics and whole history have been characterized by openness to both the west and Asia. Our nation is home to several ethnic groups, civilizations, and points of view. Pezeshkian is a representative of the slow progress that our nation so desperately needs. Even he is unsure about his choice, though.

The 70-year-old heart surgeon Pezeshkian and the former diplomat Jalili, who rejected the nuclear agreement with the west, are shown in two enormous portraits in Vali Asr plaza. In working-class neighborhoods, there are hardly any posters on show. Iranians claim that this election is the coldest they have ever seen.

However, the first round of voting, which was finished last Friday, at least dispelled several long-standing beliefs in Iran. The first was that the government might stop a long-term drop in participation by permitting a reforming candidate to run and guaranteeing a more competitive election. Rather, only 39.9% of the 61.45 million voters cast ballots, a record low that included 1.2 million spoilt ones. Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, had asked all eligible Iranians to cast ballots, and the appalling turnout calls into question his legitimacy.

Second, until turnout approached 60%, it was anticipated that Pezeshkian would not be able to take the lead in the first round. As an alternative, he won the most votes—10.4 million, one million more than Jalili.

It will probably be Jalili who receives the votes from the other conservative candidates eliminated in the first round, thus Pezeshkian will still have a difficult time winning. He has to convince those who did not vote that they cannot afford to remain neutral on Friday and that Iran’s economy, personal liberties, and foreign policy will all deteriorate under a Jalili administration.

“I know that women today don’t want someone else to decide their marriage, education, career, clothing and lifestyle,” he added as he made his pitch. “It is their inherent right to make decisions regarding their life, and they wish to have autonomy in this regard. I honor their decisions and will try my hardest to provide them the opportunity to grow into their greatest selves.

Pezeshkian has also made a great effort to demonstrate his empathy for people who have lost trust in democracy. “The people in a society are its foundation. When sixty percent of voters abstain from voting, something is wrong and people are not happy with us.

In the TV discussion on Monday, he contended that Iranian politicians were viewed as a distinct class. “People need to believe that I will eat at the same table as them and that my family will be employed in the same manner as their family is employed if we want them to cooperate.” He inquired as to why pupils who voiced complaints faced beatings or jail time.

Above all, he said that Jalili’s increasing retreat from the west provided a formula for further sanctions, a depreciating currency, and repression. “We want to grow in this world; the more we engage with others, the better our lives will be. Let’s begin with our neighbors and work our way forward from there.

Supported by the former foreign minister Javad Zarif, Pezeshkian has also advocated for a possible resumption of discussions with the US about the future of the nuclear agreement, persistently pressing Jalili to provide his economic strategy in the event that sanctions remain in place.

Whilst some of his friends have accused Pezeshkian of plotting to raise gas prices, assistant professor Peyman Jafari of William & Mary University in the US cautions that Jalili knows his constituency and “has shifted his focus to the rural areas and urban poor by promising social support.” There’s still no indication that the growing hostility between the two contenders will result in a markedly increased attendance on Friday.

He stated that it was Pezeshkian’s responsibility to persuade such a hardened electorate of the existence of the Jalili menace. “He has a few days to complete it, but it’s still a big task.”

This page was revised on July 3, 2024, to fix Masoud Pezeshkian’s misspelled surname.