There was no comment from officials or police on hand. In one polling place Friday in Tehran, a young woman without a hijab and her mother, wearing one, entered. The boycott calls have put the government under renewed pressure - since its 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s theocracy has based its legitimacy in part on turnout in elections. The lowest previous came in the last parliamentary election in 2020, which saw a 42 percent turnout.ĮXPLAINER: Who is part of Iran’s regional armed network? That could put turnout on track to be its lowest ever. It said the margin of error in the poll was 2 percent. ISPA’s poll, based on a survey of 5,121 voting-age people, predicted a turnout 38.5 percent nationally. ISPA hadn’t put out election data prior to the vote until Thursday, something highly unusual as their figures typically get released much earlier. Khamenei’s protégé, hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, repeated that call and urged the public to make it “a glorious day for the Iranian nation.”īut turnout appeared depressed in Tehran, where the state-owned polling center ISPA had estimated a turnout of 23.5 percent. “Pay attention to this, make friends happy and disappoint the evil-wishers,” he said. He urged people to vote in his brief remarks. State television showed a woman nearby weeping as she filmed Khamenei with her mobile phone. Khamenei voted before a crowd of journalists in Tehran, his left hand slightly shaking as he took his ballot from his right, paralyzed since a 1981 bombing. The panel of clerics, who serve an eight-year term, is mandated to select a new supreme leader if Khamenei steps down or dies, underscoring its increased importance, given Khamenei’s age. Khamenei, 84, cast one of the first votes in an election that also will pick new members of the country’s Assembly of Experts. God willing, those responsible will start thinking about us, and probably many of them do care.” “We are sad, we are sorrowful and we voice our criticism as much as we can. “There are many problems too many problems,” said one voter, who just gave her last name, Sajjad. Some of the voters acknowledged the challenges facing the Islamic Republic. Parliament elections could see a low turnout READ MORE: Many in Iran are frustrated by unrest and poor economy. Meanwhile, Iran’s economy continues to stagnate under Western sanctions over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program and the country’s arming of militia proxies in the Middle East and Russia in its war on Ukraine. Of about 15,000 candidates vying for seats in the 290-member parliament, formally known as the Islamic Consultative Assembly, only 116 are considered to be relatively moderate or pro-reform candidates. Others, including imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi, urged a boycott of a vote they derided as a “sham.”Īuthorities broadly barred politicians calling for any change within the country’s government, known broadly as reformists, from running in the election. Officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sought to link turnout directly to taking a stand against Iran’s enemies. While state-controlled television broadcast images of lines of voters, others across the capital of Tehran saw largely empty polling stations. It wasn’t immediately clear if voter apathy or an active desire to send a message to Iran’s theocracy depressed the number of voters coming to polling stations across the Islamic Republic. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran held its first parliamentary election Friday since mass 2022 protests over mandatory hijab laws following the death of Mahsa Amini, apparently drawing a low turnout amid calls for a boycott.
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