As voting occurred Friday for a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, videos shared on social media from cities across Iran suggested that polling stations were quiet, with few voters.
Many political and civil activists have characterized the election as a show and are advocating a boycott. The United States has stated that elections conducted under the Islamic Republic regime are neither fair nor free.
According to Iranian news agencies, the voting process officially commenced at the Islamic Republic’s embassy in New Zealand. It continued for 10 hours and concluded at 6 p.m. in Iran.
More than 61.45 million people were eligible to vote, according to Mohammad Taghi Shahpour, head of the Islamic Republic’s election headquarters.
“We aim to announce the election results by noon on Saturday,” he said.
In recent days, numerous political figures, organizations, and parties with diverse political orientations have opted to boycott the elections.
Notably, Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the head of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, on Thursday equated participating in the elections with bolstering the regime.
“If you are dissatisfied with the current situation and wish to diminish support for global terrorism, you can choose to stay home today. Staying home is a statement against the regime and the 45 years of hardship and suffering that have plagued Iran,” Ebadi said.
Many social media users, citing various human rights violations by the Islamic Republic, including the execution of several detained protesters, have indicated they will stay home and “not vote for bullets.”
Babak Negahdari, head of the Parliament Research Center, acknowledged on Thursday that the definite participation rate, with a 3-percentage-point margin of error, is estimated to be 48.6%.
Under these circumstances, according to a public relations report from the center citing an official of the Islamic Republic, “23.9 percent of those who have indicated definite or likely participation in the elections are undecided.”
Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, cast his vote Friday morning and urged Iranians do the same.
“The durability, strength, dignity, and reputation of the Islamic Republic depend on people’s participation” in the elections, he said, adding that “high voter turnout” is “an absolute necessity for the Islamic Republic.”
Iranians were choosing a new president from a tightly controlled group of four candidates loyal to the supreme leader at a time of growing public frustration. Given that, it is unlikely that the election will bring a major shift in the Islamic Republic’s policies.
Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in May as he was returning from Azerbaijan.
