The second round of the ridiculous parliamentary elections concluded on Friday, May 10, 2024. Even censored media outlets reported that the turnout for the second round was severely low. According to the Ministry of Interior in Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat, Pardis, and Islamshahr, a total of 552,000 valid votes were cast, while more than seven million and 775 thousand people were eligible to vote in these areas. Therefore, according to the official announcement in Tehran, only seven percent of eligible voters cast their ballots. Interestingly, it was reported that the Minister of Interior, who announced these results, was ridiculed by Iranian newspapers for stating that the people had “created a saga.” Despite the fact that the operatives of the Ministry of Interior have always demonstrated skill in engineering votes, this time the situation was so bad that even detailed manipulation and fraud in the votes did not work, forcing some representatives to enter the parliament with fewer than 20,000 votes.
The absurdity of the May 10th, 2024 elections was essentially an appointment among the principlists, who are considered the closest circle to Khamenei’s command. However, even these loyalists have been and are so embroiled in competition and discord that they did not heed Khamenei’s order to maintain unity. Khamenei, between the first and second rounds of the elections, publicly called on the approved individuals and the winning and second-round candidates to put an end to the widespread disputes among themselves, but even these obedient followers not only did not break for Khamenei’s orders but also exposed some documents of corruption among his closest associates such as Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Raeisi.
This electoral absurdity, which was supposed to be unified according to Khamenei’s expectations, initially entered with its two main formations under the names of the “Council of Coalition of Revolutionary Forces” and the “Unity Council,” but then two other coalitions entered the scene under the names of the “People’s Coalition of Revolutionary Forces” and the “Iran’s Dawn” coalition, led by Ali Akbar Raefipour. Consequently, this multiplicity and contrary to Khamenei’s orders that the elections should be vibrant and dynamic, turned out to be the most sluggish “elections” in the 45-year history of the Islamic regime.
For a religious dictatorship and a regime like the Islamic Republic, pretending to be democratic is to show the level of legitimacy. However, the first and second rounds of the ridiculous parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections have led everyone to realize that the regime does not even have the necessary legitimacy in the eyes of its own beneficiaries.
Even government reformists did not participate in the elections in this absurdity. This was while Khamenei had considered boycotting and not participating in the elections as opposition to Islam. Despite this, on the verge of the second round of the absurd parliamentary elections, a voice file by Mohammad Khatami was released, in which he said that government reformists had so far “begged” the government for a few seats in the parliament, which was futile.
The reality is that government reformists, who have always served the regime and practically endorsed the poverty of the people, the low wages of workers, and the massacres of the nineties, have smelled the core of power by Khamenei’s leadership and the commanders in the power of the Revolutionary Guards and are preparing themselves to take over. They are not alongside the people who are against them, their interests, and their goals. They want to do something that the workers and toilers do not resort to the revolution but rather involve the lifeless Imamzadeh in creating acceptable bourgeois changes and dissatisfy Western imperialism.
Most analysts of Iranian affairs believe that the Islamic Republic throughout the 85 million Iranian society, in the best case, represents 10 to 15 percent of the people. If what happened on Friday is placed within the framework of protest movements and current struggles, it can undoubtedly pave the way for larger movements in the future and fertilize hope for the future. The future that these people, the victims of the rule of the Islamic Republic, must be its creators. Undoubtedly, in the end, by uniting social movements and all freedom-loving and equality-seeking people, this criminal government will be removed from the scene in Iran, and the prerequisites for establishing a new humane, free, equal, and prosperous society will be provided.
