The exiled Iranian resistance released a detailed analysis of the presidential election, which its president called a “masquerade” after the ruling mullahs disqualified 678 registered candidates, including a former president who posed the greatest threat to the regime. The 12-member Guardian Council approved a slate of eight candidates.
Maryam Rajavi, president of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, said the regime added more legitimacy to sanction advocates by its “contraction” of the field of candidates.
“Election masquerade settled with theocratic regime’s complete and inevitable contraction. No solution exists within the regime, affirming the legitimacy and imperative of the regime’s boycott and overthrow,” Ms. Rajavi said.
The resistance’s Washington office last week issued a 10-page analysis of the election, noting that the regime openly admits that it rigs the vote.
“The appropriate name for what is happening in Iran is the one the regime, itself, uses: ‘election engineering,’” the analysis said. “In other words, despite its appearance, the only thing that is of no consequence and plays no serious role [in the election] is the people’s vote.”