Iranian Regime Leader’s Deafening Chorus Is Fear of Decisive Election Boycott
Terrified of the decisive boycott of the parliamentary election masquerade and subsequent to Wednesday’s remarks by the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, the mullahs’ leaders have come to the scene one after the other in an attempt to intimidate the public into taking part in this charade.
Speaking in Bushehr (southern Iran) yesterday, the regime’s criminal Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi said, “Election is an important issue. Whoever whose heart is in this system… must perform well in carrying out their duty in this regard. Whoever, with whatever motive, undermines this election, knowingly or unknowingly, wittingly or unwittingly, would be in the enemy’s camp by weakening the election.”
Mohammad Emami Kashani, the Friday prayer leader of Tehran said today, “Going to the ballot box is caring for the security and safeguarding of the country. The enemy will be looking at the turnout.”
Underscoring that “the enemy wants to undermine the people’s participation in the election.” Ahmad Alam al-Hoda, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad, northeast Iran, said any opposition to the election would be echoing “the arrogant enemy.” In a reference to the regime’s President Hassan Rouhani, he said, “That they say there is no competition in the election, but merely a selection, is regrettable for us. Some holding high office inside the country echoes the views of the enemy, and parrot what the enemy says about the election is a formality.”
Recounting a series of mullahs’ religious edicts, a cleric speaking before the main sermon at Tehran’s Friday prayer congregation, said, “Not participating in the election weakens the regime. It is religiously forbidden. For eligible voters, participation is a Sharia-dictated and divine duty. It is a must, which everyone should perform like prayers.” While the mullahs do not allow women to travel without the permission of their husbands, this cleric said: “Participating in the election is not predicated on the husband’s permission.”
Nevertheless, so definitive are the prospects for the election boycott that when, in a bid to encourage voter turnout, an agency affiliated with the state radio and television broadcasting conducted a poll on its Telegram channel, despite the widespread of participation of the paramilitary Bassij and the IRGC, 82 percent said they would not vote. Fearing the repercussions of this poll, the state radio and tv immediately removed it from its Telegram channel.
Emphasizing that boycotting this election is a patriotic duty and the Iranian nation’s pledge with the martyrs, especially the 1,500 who lost their lives during the November 2019 uprising, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said the Iranian people cast their true vote during the November 2019 and January 2020 uprisings with chants of “Death to the principle of the velayat-e faqih, death to Khamenei and Rouhani.”
The Iranian people have cast their true vote in the November 2019 & January 2020 uprisings with chants of “death to the principle of the velayat-e faqih and death to Khamenei.” They will boycott the regime’s illegitimate election more so than before. #IranShamElections #Iran
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 5, 2020
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 7, 2020