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On Saturday,\u00a0the Iranian regime\u00a0held the first presidential debate<\/a> ahead of its June 18\u00a0sham\u00a0<\/a>election. The spectacle reaffirmed Iranians\u2019 commitment to boycott the election and express support for regime change. Only seven so-called \u201ccandidates\u201d are currently set to appear on the ballot this month, out of nearly 600 who registered prior to vetting by the Guardian Council. The current mass election is a formality and shows leading to the installation of the regime\u2019s current Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi \u2013 the candidate favored by the mullahs\u2019 Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei<\/a> \u2013 as the next president.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n By all accounts, the debate served mostly to provide Raisi and other members of his faction with an opportunity to\u00a0blame the regime\u2019s President\u00a0Hassan Rouhani for the country\u2019s worsening economic problems\u00a0and the Covid-19 outbreak<\/a>. But all candidates offered no plan for the current crises, as they are all involved in creating these crises and amplifying them.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This approach effectively shielded the candidates from the responsibility of presenting actual policy preferences that might address the rampant inflation, unemployment, and rising commodity prices that contribute to a situation in which more than 50 percent of the entire Iranian population is living below the poverty line.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The regime\u2019s\u00a0authorities and state media outlets\u00a0have been\u00a0already anticipating record low levels of voter turnout before the debate, and their own criticism of Saturday\u2019s proceeding suggests that these expectations have only been reinforced.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0nationwide boycott of the sham\u00a0election is not just a testament to voter apathy but rather the result of a coordinated boycott campaign being promoted by the\u00a0Iranian opposition\u00a0the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran\u00a0(PMOI\/MEK)<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0MEK\u2019s\u00a0\u201cResistance Units\u201d<\/a> staged public displays in at least 250 locations across the country in April alone, and their efforts persisted through May and into June while drawing the attention of various participants in protests over the economy.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Those protests include demonstrations by pensioners who have seen their income shrink to the point of not being able to afford the basic necessities of life and by formerly middle-class individuals whose savings were destroyed by government-run investment scams. These and other groups have systematically adopted slogans like \u201cwe have seen no justice; we will not vote anymore,\u201d to indicate that they will not participate in the June 18 election, and may not participate in any future elections held under the same system.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This in turn reflects the\u00a0MEK\u2019s\u00a0efforts to promote an electoral boycott as a means of \u201cvoting for regime change.\u201d The recent protests and the actions of Resistance Units recall attention to the already record-setting low voter turnout in the parliamentary elections of 2020. And that mass boycott came as little surprise\u00a0in light of\u00a0its proximity to nationwide anti-regime\u00a0uprisings in which the residents of nearly 200 localities called for the ouster of all officials and condemned both the \u201chardline\u201d and the \u201creformist\u201d factions of\u00a0the regime.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Now, it should come as little surprise that the system as a whole is engineering the sham presidential election so a leading figure in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners \u2013 become president, setting the stage for dramatic consolidation of power following Raisi\u2019s inauguration.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0prospect for this consolidation of power depends to a great extent upon the way the international community and the Iranian people themselves react to a process that\u00a0Mohammad Mohaddessin, the Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, described as \u201ca travesty [and] a selection process by a supreme leader who is himself unelected.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The NCRI \u2013 a coalition of pro-democracy groups\u00a0including the MEK-\u00a0\u00a0will\u00a0hold its annual\u00a0international\u00a0gathering, and will\u00a0address the\u00a0potential changes in Western foreign policy that might support the Iranian people in the wake of Raisi\u2019s ascendance from his position as the country\u2019s chief torturer\u00a0to\u00a0the position in which he will have the second most say over foreign and domestic policy, exceeded only by Khamenei.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The July World Summit<\/a> on a Free Iran will also assess the effectiveness of the PMOI\u2019s electoral boycott campaign and its implications for a possible return of nationwide uprisings like those seen in January 2018, November 2019, and January 2020.\u00a0Mr.\u00a0Mohaddessin said in a press conference last month that a massive boycott will be a precursor to a \u201clooming nationwide uprising waiting in the wings. And when that happens,\u201d he continued, \u201cit will be far more intense and widespread than in previous years. In a nutshell, for Khamenei, this is a battle of survival.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n #Iran<\/a>: Press Briefing: Mullahs\u2019 Sham Presidential Election | NCRI FAC Chair Mohammad Mohaddessin to brief journalists on the election prospects, its consequences, and the nationwide activities of Resistance #BoycottIranShamElections<\/a> #MyVoteRegimeChange<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/KK6c2kM4uT<\/a><\/p>\n — NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 26, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"Weekly-Signe-up-logo-1\"](\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Weekly-Signe-up-logo-1.png\" "\\"Weekly-Signe-up-logo-1\\""){kind=logo}
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