Hundreds of Activists Boycott Iranian Elections, Cite Rigging for Reason

There is a growing number of Iranian civil and political activists urging the people of Iran to boycott the country's general elections scheduled for this Friday, March 1, accusing the authorities of rigging the polls.

Asharq al-Awsat reported that more than 270 activists issued a statement confirming their protest of the polls, which would be the first since the outbreak of protests that shook the country at the end of 2022 following the death of young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini days after the country's morality police arrested her.

Analysts and experts in Iranian politics expect a low voter turnout on Friday and could reach its lowest level since the deposition of the Pahlavi Dynasty and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

Among the signatories were former officials and representatives who stated that the elections "reached a more deplorable situation, even compared to the previous elections."

Among those signing the statement were top Iranian opposition figure Abolfazl Qadiani. Influential Sunni cleric Abdolhamid Esmailzehi, imprisoned reformist activist Mostafa Tajzadeh, and jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi separately issued their own statements about the political situation in Iran.

(Photo: ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Activists Accuse Iranian Authorities of Rigging Elections

The calls to boycott the elections increased after the Guardian Council, a 12-member group that acts as Iran's highest governing body, rejected the requests of prominent reformist candidates.

The "deadlock of reforms" points to a deepening crisis within the country's political landscape, added the statement.

According to the signatories, public participation in the elections has sharply declined, and most parties of the reformist movement withdrew from the process. The statement also pointed out that voting was one of the basic rights and a source of legitimacy for any democratic system and that Friday's election would lack any objectivity.

"The failed politics of participation and presence in the elections, in any case, and at any cost, has never succeeded, as evidenced by repeated trials and bitter historical experiences in recent decades," the statement read. "Without a genuine revival of the electoral institution, real participation and presence will not occur."

Emphasizing the dire state of Iran's current electoral institution, the activists outlined a series of prerequisites for holding genuine, fair, and healthy elections. They indicated that since those conditions were not present in the upcoming elections, they "deem it necessary not to participate," describing them as "engineered against the public's sovereignty."