The dreadful theocracy that draconian ayatollahs have imposed on Iranians bears no similarity to a democratic system, says Kenneth Blackwell, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
Amb. Blackwell who is also a member of the bipartisan International Foundation for Electoral Systems wrote in an article published on Tuesday: “What’s worse is that in a very real sense, the outcome of the elections for Parliament and Assembly of Experts were already determined long before formal campaigns launched.” The so-called election will be held on Friday.
“Every candidate for high office in Iran is subject to an elaborate vetting process. Whoever is found to have even the least nonconformity is disqualified. Iranian election law specifically stipulates that candidates must “believe and adhere to Islam and the sacred system of the Islamic Republic in practice” and “express loyalty to the Constitution and the supreme leader.”
“For the upcoming parliamentary elections, only 6,300 people were approved as candidates for 290 seats, out of 12,123 people who initially registered with the Interior Ministry. Of 810 candidates for the assembly, only 165 have been approved. In nine constituencies, that process has left only one candidate, running uncontested.”
“Not a single woman was approved, since the regime’s official position is that women are not competent to participate in overseeing the Supreme Leader or selecting his replacement.”
Blackwell believes the current situation is no different from the past and the absolute authority of the supreme leader has continued.
Regarding claims of Hassan Rouhani’ ‘moderation’ he write that the regime’s president “has overseen a series of domestic policies that reaffirm the Islamic Republic’s hard-line ideology.”
“In the wake of the nuclear agreement, the regime has become more ruthless, stepping up executions and intensifying the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ active support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his massacre of the Syrian people.”
Amb. Blackwell many Iranians are washing their hands of “a false electoral process that serves only to preserve the status quo and guarantee more bloodshed at home and abroad.”
“Progressive, pro-democratic Iranians recognize that their responsibility is not to contribute to an illusion of democracy but to create democracy where none currently exists.”
The former U.S. Ambassador says: “Whether they are independent human rights activists or members of the organized opposition, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the opposition’s political body, these people need our help.”
He urges the American leadership in the region “to focus the world’s attention on the ongoing obstruction of democracy under Iran’s theocratic regime.”
Source: http://www.investors.com/politics/viewpoint/u-s-and-europe-should-reject-ayatollahs-election-as-a-sham/
