Editor’s Column: Democratic Elections

A few days have passed since the elections of 7 Esfand 94 for parliament and the Assembly of Experts, yet supporters of the winning faction call it democratic.

Iran’s Interior Minister announced public participation in the elections of the 7th of Esfand at 62 percent. Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli on Sunday, the 10th of Esfand 94, in a gathering with journalists announced that “in Tehran approximately 50 percent and throughout the country approximately 62 percent of eligible voters participated in the elections.” According to the announcement of the Interior Ministry of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 33 million out of 55 million eligible persons participated in the voting.

With a simple mathematical calculation, one can confidently assert that the ballots cast in the boxes represented only 60 percent of eligible participants in the elections. Of course, the statistics of the respected Interior Ministry, like the statistics of other officials, are not entirely reliable.

Based on official reports, in the elections of the ninth parliament, 64 percent of eligible persons participated. However, the number of eligible persons and the level of participation in the second, fifth, and sixth parliaments elections with participation rates of 64, 71, and 69 percent respectively encountered greater reception compared to the elections of 7th Esfand 94.

Some political activists, based on eyewitness observations, believe that the level of participation in polling stations does not match the number of ballots cast in boxes as announced by the Interior Ministry.

What catches statistical attention at first glance is the continuous and successive decline in the number of election participants in Iran. Here we wish to take another look at the electoral process in Iran and its order, and examine the general reasons for non-participation in elections.

1) The Guardian Council. A council tasked with determining the qualifications of candidates (!) which in reality aims to engineer the shape of the future parliament.

2) Negotiations of disqualified candidates and sometimes their return to the election arena with a government decree. (A government decree is an order issued by the Supreme Leader to reject the Guardian Council’s decision regarding disqualification.) Question: If the aforementioned council has disqualified individuals based on law, then a government decree is unlawful. And if the disqualification of individuals is contrary to law, how does this council continue to be authorized to function?

3) Election campaigns – vote-buying and multiple disputes among election headquarters. All three factions, right, left, and center, acknowledge the entry of dirty money for vote-buying. Election disputes in small cities are usually due to competing groups entering the campaign zones of candidates. You read it right, the zone of purchased votes.

4) Executive programs of representatives. None of the candidates provide clear and formulated programs for their candidacy period. Because during their term as representatives they must keep their eyes on the Supreme Leader and his office. Because the law of survival on a parliamentary seat has been this.

5) Voting. Dispatching buses of vote-sellers to areas where there is a possibility of defeat for favored candidates. Arrest of 16 buses carrying vote-sellers in Fouman. Arrest of a bus of Qom seminary students voting in Tehran. Arrest of dozens of buses of vote-sellers in Gonabad and stopping a bus carrying vote-sellers in Zabol.

Printing extra ballot papers beyond the number of eligible persons. These ballots along with ballots from election boycotters have unknown destinations.

Invalidation of ballot boxes in constituencies where the certain defeat of the ruling faction is indicated.

Non-electronic voting. Voting through paper ballots and non-electronic nature increases the possibility and likelihood of ballot manipulation.

6) Vote counting. Vote counting is done by personnel of the election organizing headquarters of the Interior Ministry and the design of the ballot paper does not allow for vote counting by special ballot-reading machines. Even with the presence of headquarters observers, there is potential for tampering with legitimate votes. Note that vote counters are appointed by the Interior Ministry and not by impartial organizations.

7) People’s representatives. All representatives who reach parliament, regardless of their political faction, immediately declare their commitment and loyalty to the leadership and the ideals of the late Imam and the revolution. And in a short time, they forget their passionate electoral slogans. The ends justify the means.

I am bewildered as to where in these elections was the democracy that has been hidden from us?

What has been the outcome of people’s choices in past elections? Unfortunately, contrary to declining electoral participation, we face rising statistical rates of social harms.

Rising poverty line to over 3 million tomans monthly. Increase in number of addicts and lowering the age of addiction to school levels. Increase in prostitution and lowering the age of prostitution to thirteen years. Emergence of male prostitutes. Increase in street violence rates. Increase in divorce rate to 30 percent. Increase in those afflicted with psychological disorders to 25 percent of the population. Increase in delinquency and lowering the age of delinquency. Rising unemployment rates and job insecurity. Rising unemployment among educated classes. Increase in suicide figures. Increase in domestic violence and murder. Escalating increase in prison population. Growing violations of human rights and increasing execution figures. Violations of basic civil laws and basic human rights and… to all this add suppression, torture, terrorism and execution of journalists and political/civil activists as well as ethnic and religious minorities.

Do I really need to remind you of the atrocities committed against Iran’s churches? When their only crime was worshipping God? Do I really need to remind you of the killing of Father Haik with 26 knife stabs or the strange hanging of the compassionate shepherds? Do I need to remind you that all churches in Iran have been closed and they are not allowed any participation?

Have you asked yourselves why, despite all these conditions, 33 million eligible persons went to the polls in Iran?

1) Approximately 10 percent of voters are government appointees and supporters. 2) Probably half are forced to participate in voting due to job conditions (military personnel, teachers, government employees and state institutions) and educational conditions and…

But what were the remaining 14-15 million who hopefully cast their ballots and constitute only one quarter of eligible persons seeking? Let us be honest and frank. Elections in Iran are no longer a choice between bad and worse. Iran’s elections are a desperate attempt by people to gain even a small space to continue survival. A little air to breathe and to live. A glimmer of hope for hope in the coming of a savior.

More painful is that we have fallen victim to historical amnesia and deterioration of long-term memory. More painful is that part of this forgetting is willing. We do not remember or try to forget what has happened to us. Or perhaps we are escaping from the disappointing efforts of our past. Perhaps we are saddened by all our fruitless efforts. Perhaps it is disappointment with the sixth parliament or disappointment with the unfulfilled promises of Khordad 76 that we do not remember. Our disappointment and forgetting may stem from our futile efforts throughout the summer to winter of 88 that has caused us this memory loss?

Sound reason and wise spirit forbid us from fleeing problems and see remedy in confronting them. The solution to a problem is in its exposure, not in its correction.