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The second round of the staged elections for the twelfth Islamic Consultative Assembly (the regime’s parliament, also called the Majlis) by the religious dictatorship in Iran took place on Friday, May 10, amidst silence, indifference, and widespread boycott by the Iranian people. While an overwhelming majority of Iran’s society intended to demonstrate their will for regime change, the ruling factions vied with each other for greater power and influence in Tehran, engaging in numerous revelations against one another in recent days.
The first round of the staged elections for the regime’s parliament was held on March 1, with an approximate participation rate of 8.5% according to assessments by the Iranian Resistance. Even according to official statistics released by the regime, it marked the lowest voter turnout rate in the history of elections under this regime. Similar to the 2021 presidential elections, the blank votes came out victorious, with candidates ranking from first to fifth in major cities often securing less than 10% of the vote.
According to the Ministry of Interior statistics, in that round, the fate of 245 out of 290 seats in the Majlis was determined, with the ongoing competition for the remaining 45 seats, 16 of which belong to the Tehran electoral district.
Following extensive disqualifications by the Interior Ministry and the Guardian Council, which eliminated 27 sitting MPs, reports indicated that factions generally self-identified as “Principlist” managed to secure 158 seats in the first round of parliamentary sham elections. It is predicted that the faction close to Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime, will obtain another 40+ seats in the second round, increasing their seat count in the twelfth Majlis to approximately 200.
NCRI Editorial: #Iranian People’s Nationwide Boycott Echoes Call for Regime Changehttps://t.co/vPa6F51PiR pic.twitter.com/VeWcMttYSz
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) March 3, 2024
Warning about the consequences of a widespread boycott by the public, the state-run newspaper, Farhikhtegan run a commentary with the title “Please Contemplate on The Number of Turnout.”
This media outlet, owned by Ali-Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister and senior advisor to Khamenei, wrote on Saturday, May 11, “Today’s supporters of the candidates and the elected representatives from the first round are eagerly awaiting the final results to determine the composition of the parliament. Unofficial figures indicating an ‘eight percent’ turnout in Tehran suggest that the elected representatives to the parliament are heading to the Majlis with a trivial number of votes. In the first round, the candidates ranked from 1st to 5th in Tehran received similar vote counts to those ranked from 31st to 40th in previous elections. Regardless of the final composition, the most important question facing Iranian politicians is the reasons behind the election results from a macro perspective.”
Referring to the significant portion of society turning their backs on the regime, Farhikhtegan concluded, “The elections that have passed beyond have many lessons for the future of Iran.”
On Friday, while showing up for state reporters to cast his vote, Ali Khamenei once again pressed for voter turnout in his staged elections.
Prior to the second round, factions self-identifying as Principlists were heavily engaged in a war of attrition against each other. Under various lofty names and titles, the group included the Coalition Council of Islamic Revolutionary Forces (SHANA) and the Paydari Front (led by Hamidreza Resaee), the Front of Iran’s Morning (led by Ali-Akbar Raefipour), and Omana; the Unity Council of Principalists.
The clerical regime in #Iran is approaching the elections amidst broad societal disenchantment. Officials and state media anticipate record-high election boycotts compared to any other year. pic.twitter.com/J0HLl554pt
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) February 14, 2024
In the days leading up to the first round of the parliamentary sham elections, people close to Raefipour released images of the transfer document for “three thousand pieces” of traveler’s checks worth one hundred thousand tomans each. They claimed that Mohammad-Saeed Ahadian, media advisor to current Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, has been using the Public Relations Department of the Parliament to present these documents as “gift cards” to a company where Ahadian himself served on the board of directors. This company was also accused of handing out money among managers of Telegram channels and media outlets covering parliamentary news.
Subsequently, some individuals close to Ghalibaf published documents last week indicating that approximately “one hundred billion tomans” had been deposited into the “Masaf” Charity Foundation, affiliated with Raefiour, since 2022, under the guise of “donations,” and distributed among various individuals and companies.
The documents suggest that some of the social media accounts that are actively publishing content against Ghalibaf are being funded by the Masaf Foundation.
Trying to explain this “money laundering,” Raefiour recorded a video, accusing the whistleblowers of accessing people’s bank accounts through security institutions. Threatening to file complaints, he dismissed the allegations against Masaf as “media manipulation prior to the elections.”
Nevertheless, as the regime’s parliament is set to commence on May 27, there is no doubt about who it will serve and whom it will not. As Khamenei is going to weigh how much influence he has gained in a purified legislative, the people of Iran become more aware of how to achieve real change.
