Since the massive and sustained women’s uprising across cities, small towns and rural areas of Iran after the murder of young Mahsa Amini at the hands of the moral police for apparently not wearing the hijab properly, the world seems to have forgotten Iran totally. No wonder, the victory of the hardline conservatives, in what is being stated as a record low turn-out of voters in a sham election, has gone almost unnoticed.
This kind of low turn-out has never been seen since the 1979 Islamic revolution. , In the elections held on March 1, blank ballot papers and mass boycott seemed to be dominant trend.
Officials claimed that 40.6 per cent polling had happened, which is way below the polling even in the last elections. There were reports of hundreds of blank ballots (in protest?) and several cities and towns with abysmally low voter turn-out, not exceeding even 30 per cent polling. ‘The Guardian’ of London reported that “after 10 hours of voting, turnout had stood at only 27 per cent, and in Tehran it was just 12 per cent after eight hours, before the polls were unexpectedly kept open for an extra two hours”.
There have been reports that the turnout was extremely low in Tehran – just about 24 per cent. Blank ballot papers flooded the polling booth. Often blank votes outnumbered the vote-count of all real candidates, or blank votes became runners-up – in a major sign of massive embarrassment to the regime. In Tehran and around 14 provinces, no candidate could even secure 20 per cent of valid votes – the minimum required, according to reports.
This unusual trend happened after the Iranian hardline government had tried every trick in the trade to boost voter turn-out, including picking up social media protesters. However, the majority of citizens, and especially thousands of women and girls, chose to ‘stay at home’ and not vote as a symbolic and collective gesture of defiance and protest against the regime, which had earlier cracked down brutally on the peaceful and protracted women’s uprising.
During the spontaneous and sustained women’s movement against the moral police, against the forcible law of hijab, while demanding democracy, freedom and equality, women and girls would cut off their hair in public spaces, and wave their hijab around bonfires, shouting defiant slogans, dancing and singing songs of freedom and revolution. Even schoolgirls and boys joined in this mass uprising, which captured the world’s attention for a long time; however, predictably, the western and American media lost interest after the crackdown intensified.
Indeed, the mass boycott by citizens, especially women, amounts to a total rejection of the factionalized hardliners who have all only hardened their position since the women’s rebellion. It’s a clear signal that all is not well in the country, which has been trapped in high inflation, economic crisis and unemployment since Donald Trump withdrew the treaty signed by Barack Obama, thereby renewing the sanctions.
The conservatives have consolidated their hold on the Parliament, and inside the the Assembly of Experts, an 88-strong group which would appoint the next supreme leader, once Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds absolute power, dies. Significantly, there are reports that many reformists were not allowed to contest and were deliberately disqualified, thereby proving that the elections were more or less a sham, with no opposition worth its name.
‘The BBC’ reported that the head of the Reform Front coalition of parties — which refused to take part in the elections they considered “meaningless” and “non-competitive” — said she hoped the elections would serve as “a lesson” for the State. “Authorities should listen to the silent majority… and reform the governance method,” state media quoted Azar Mansouri as saying. “I hope they realize before it’s too late to reverse the damage and harm this path will cause.”
‘Al Jazeera’ has reported that hardline President Ebrahim Raisi predictably renewed his place at the Assembly of Experts for a third time, securing more than 82 per cent of the vote in the South Khorasan province located in eastern Iran. He had no opponent really after all the candidates were disqualified, but one candidate was propped up from a district, in what critics claim, as nothing but a ‘show’ of a pseudo-contest. Clearly, this was a ceremonial election, with his victory pre-destined. Ultraconservative Ahmad Khatami, imam in Tehran, has yet again got a seat at the assembly from the province of Kerman.
Significantly, in yet another dictatorial message to the populace, especially to the dissenters, the hardliners sentenced Grammy winner Shervin Hajipour to almost four years in prison, and that too on election day. His deeply sensitive and evocative song, ‘Baraye’ became an international best-seller, and a kind of ‘national anthem’ for the women and men protesters during the protests in 2022. The song, indeed, became a synthesis with the popular slogan of — “women, life, freedom”, which was the theme slogan of the women’s movement.
Across the world it hit the top ranks in music charts, youngsters sang it in public spaces, the song was translated in other languages, and Coldplay adapted it in its own versions. Funnily, in the prison sentence, he has been asked to write prose and poetry attacking the US!
Significantly, Iran has hardly witnessed mass protests in support of Palestine and the genocide in Gaza, despite its government fully backing Hamas and Hezbollah over the years. This is in sharp contrast to the huge and sustained protests all over its neighbourhood against Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel. Indeed, Jordan witnessed a rally of tens of thousands of people outside the Israeli embassy recently, demanding that it should be removed from the country.
Observers believe that protests were discouraged in Iran simply because the Islamic regime was unsure if the mass protests in support of Palestine, might just transform itself into yet another uprising against the hardline government in Iran! Clearly, those who are ruling Iran now, are wary and distrustful of the majority of its own people. Clearly, the collective urge for freedom, democracy and women’s liberation is still simmering strong in the political subconscious of this nation. The mass, silent boycott in this low turn-out polls is a signal which just can’t be missed.