Iran – Election Show – No. 2
Reports from 219 cities across 31 provinces of the country as of 16:00 local time indicate that despite eight hours since the start of voting, polling stations remain largely empty. In many areas, voter turnout has been minimal or nonexistent.
For example, in Tehran, at polling stations in Yaft Abad, Shahrak Azadi, 13 Aban, Hadis Girls’ High School, Nazie Abad Araqhi Street, Imam Hassan Mosque, and Haji Hossein Maktabi School, very few participants were seen actively voting. Even during the hours following Friday prayers, when regime officials anticipated higher turnout, no significant increase was reported.
In Tehran’s Shahriar district, a women’s Basij base known as Reihaneh Al-Nabi brought a busload of Basiji women to vote at one polling station, then directed them to other areas for further voting.
Reuters reported through three visual reports that polling stations in Narmak, Ilam, and Isfahan showed a lack of voter presence.
The polling stations in Qom witnessed an unprecedented quietness. Observations over 6 hours across 84 polling stations revealed that in 34 stations, there were no voters; in 4 stations, only one voter; in 3 stations, two voters; in 8 stations, three voters; in 13 stations, five voters; in 9 stations, six voters; in 5 stations, seven voters; in 2 stations, eight voters; in 4 stations, nine voters; and in 1 station, ten voters showed up to vote.
In Zahedan prison, among ordinary criminals, all ballots were pre-marked and prisoners were forced to put their fingerprints on them. In Isfahan’s Dastgerd prison, inmates were compelled to vote.
Repressive forces are widely deployed in the streets. In Tehran’s Moniriyeh metro station, a SSF team with 10 motorcycles and one vehicle has stationed itself, stopping individuals with cameras and preventing them from filming.
According to the government-affiliated website Etemad Online, today, Haji Sadeghi, a representative of Khamenei in the Revolutionary Guards, stated, “For the presidency, someone must be chosen who believes in the Resistance Front… We cannot ignore Gaza and Lebanon, and we can not be hostile to Israel and America.”
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
28 June 2024