Mahdieh Golroo: Choosing between bad and worse no longer makes sense; the "I won't vote" campaign is an active boycott of the elections
In recent days, various campaigns have been launched to boycott the presidential election, including the "Vote Without a Vote" and "I Will Not Vote" campaigns. Mahdieh Golroo, a political activist based in Sweden who was recently introduced as the spokesperson for the "I Will Not Vote" campaign, told VOA, referring to the goals of the campaign, that testing the 42-year experience of reformism has revealed more than ever the flawed electoral structure of the system and its inability to solve the country's micro and macro problems, and choosing between bad and worse no longer makes sense.
Previously, the "I Will Not Vote" campaign emphasized in its statement that the members of this campaign were launched by a diverse group of pro-democracy organizations and political activists to purposefully boycott the elections, focusing on the 2014 presidential election and synergizing all forces that have a negative attitude towards this showy election, to propose refusing to vote as an act of protest.
The campaign added: "The boycott of the elections begins with defending the dignity of the vote and the human dignity of Iranian citizens, and then pursues the short-term goal of protest action and strengthening the agency of the will of political and social forces as free and self-aware subjects. This mentality must be strengthened in society that the Islamic Republic of Iran and its construction of absolute power are not the inevitable and inevitable fate of Iran."
It seems that more people inside Iran are reluctant to participate in the elections this election season than in the past, and even political activists from inside Iran are more vocal and public about boycotting the elections than in the past. Abolfazl Ghadiani, a political activist who has been arrested and imprisoned several times in recent years, called for a boycott of the elections in a new letter.
