The day of June 18, 2021, will be remembered as a pivotal point in Iranian history. According to the regime’s state media, this event marked the beginning of the “dichotomy between voting and not voting.” This contrast was a strong indication that Iranian society, at all levels, no longer accept and tolerate the dictatorial regime.
Fearing this outcome, the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei urged citizens to vote and not to protest at the ballot box before the election, “huffing and puffing with the ballot box isn’t going to solve the problem. The objections of the people are true, but their conclusions are incorrect; everyone must vote.”
The democratic opposition says that the authorities inflated voter turnout by a factor of five, while Iranian Resistance reporters broadcast footage from polling locations that were abandoned.
When the ‘elected’ President Ebrahim Raisi asked the people, “Everyone is disappointed and has difficulty participating in the elections for any reason,” the paradox became real. Everything I said during the campaign is still true.”
However, the Iranian people’s boycott of the elections grew to the point that even quadrupling the numbers of votes placed in the ballot box could not raise the percentage of participants above 50%.
The actual percentage is less than 10%. The fact that the number of invalid votes in this sham election is bigger than the number of announced votes for the other candidates speaks for itself.
“There was a lot of talk during the election and bad things were done by some centers, especially the Guardian Council. But it was over.
The number of invalid votes shows the seriousness of the people in conveying their message; But let us not complain. Do not search for the culprit. Let us not make fruitless complaints. Most political parties came to increase participation. But it did not happen. Most people did not want it.” wrote the State-run news agency SNN, on June 19.
Mohammad-Ali Abtahi a government cleric: “Instead of traditional protests, we know that the job of Raisi is very difficult. Also, inside because of the lack of good company. And abroad due to undesirable cooperation.” State-run news agency SNN added.
As a constituent of the regime, “We got votes from a society that was ‘immersed in itself’ and had lost its ‘political trust,’” said Mehdi Jamshidi, a faculty member of the Department of Culture and Research, Institute of Culture and Social Studies, Institute of Islamic Culture, and Ideology. A civilization is rife with “living pains” and whose “cry” was cut short in the throat. Even a “minor blunder” has become a “major blunder” in today’s world; a “slip” poisons people’s political confidence and magnifies divisions and discontents.
The Iranian society well demonstrated on June 18 that they are not interested in an oppressive and manipulated political system. Now it’s time for the regime apologist to understand and support the Iranians in their quest for democracy.
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