Prince Reza Pahlavi calls for election boycott: Don't participate in government's "fraud"

Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran, called for a boycott of the Iranian presidential election in a statement, writing that "in conditions of demand suppression and supply monopoly," talk of an election is "fraudulent."

On the eve of the 12th presidential election of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Prince Reza Pahlavi issued a statement calling on the Iranian people not to participate in a "new era of historic electoral fraud" and "the deceit of the ruling criminal sect."

According to Mr. Pahlavi, "from the businessman to the cleric, the priority of the disposable and recycled contractors of the system has been and is to maintain the ruling anti-national sect in power," and by "emptying the elections of their content," the Islamic Republic's government is seeking "a media-friendly image to flaunt its petrified nature."

The last crown prince of Iran, who chairs the "National Council of Iran," has described the competition between fundamentalists and reformists in the upcoming elections as "a specialized division of labor within the ruling criminal sect," and has written: "The problem cannot be solved by those who played the most key role in creating it." Therefore, the youth of Iran must "reject this criminal sect."

The 2016 Human Rights Report published by the US State Department states that "Iranian citizens face restrictions on their ability to determine their government peacefully and through free and fair elections."

In response to this report, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stated in March of last year that elections in Iran are "free, healthy, competitive, and democratic" and that 70 to 73 percent of Iranians participate in the elections.

Sarah Repucci, a senior director at Freedom House, told VOA that the elections held in Iran were not "free": "We are witnessing the exercise of strict control over the process of selecting candidates. Even if we say that the process was free, the election campaigns are not carried out freely, and therefore we still believe that democracy has not reached Iran, at least not in this year's (elections)."

The 12th round of Iranian presidential elections will be held on Friday, May 19.

Source: Voice of America