"March Without a Vote": Political Activists Call for "Boycott of the Elections"

164 political and civil society activists abroad have called on the Iranian people to boycott the parliamentary elections in March. These activists hope that by actively boycotting the elections, the popular protests will turn into a widespread movement.

A group of Iranian political and civil activists abroad issued a statement calling on the Iranian people to join the "active boycott" of the parliamentary elections on March 2.

The authors of this statement, calling the parliamentary elections a show and pointing out that "the assignment of 70 percent of the representative constituencies in these elections has been determined in advance by the engineering of the institution of Velayat-e-Faqih, the appointed Guardian Council, and the military-security forces, without any meaningful competition, even among the government factions," considered these elections to be devoid of any conformity or relation to national sovereignty and representation of the Iranian people.

"March without a vote" is the title chosen by political and civil activists outside Iran to boycott the elections. The Iranian parliamentary elections will be held in about two weeks (March 19, 2019).

By signing this statement, 164 political and civil activists outside Iran have considered the election boycott an appropriate opportunity to continue the "protests" and, after "organization," to create a "powerful and inclusive social movement."

In this call, the people of Iran are asked to distance themselves from "decorative ballot boxes" so that through this civil disobedience, the ground can be prepared for "real elections that are commensurate with the dignity of the people" in the country.

Another part of the statement emphasized: "Participating in these appointments indirectly is both trampling on the blood of those who lost their lives in the November protests and ignoring the people who were unjustly killed in the targeting of a passenger plane, and it also adds fuel to the mill of religious tyranny to compensate for its lost legitimacy."

Previously, Narges Mohammadi, a political prisoner in Iran, had also called for a boycott of the elections "out of respect for the blood of those killed" in recent Iranian protests.

The statement also suggests ways to influence public opinion and “encourage people not to vote” and reduce turnout, especially in small cities. The activists hope that the boycott of the elections will become an opportunity for “the growth of a widespread protest movement and the decline of religious tyranny” in Iran.