Record low turnout as evening begins and Tehran scrambles to keep polls open and beg people to vote.
By SETH J. FRANTZMANIranian President Hassan Rouhani visits the family of the Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, who was killed by an air strike in Baghdad, at his home in Tehran, Iran January 4, 2020(photo credit: OFFICIAL PRESIDENT WEBSITE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
Iran kept its voting booths open late on election day Friday. Officials claimed it was so more people could vote, claiming there were long lines. But videos showed few people voting. It appears that turnout was low and the government kept the polls open late to beg people to come. ISNA media in Iran noted that turnout looked to be only 20% or 12 million of the 60 million who could have voted. If that number ends up as the official tally, it will have been a disaster for the regime.Even the few who did seem to vote looked like it was the most boring election they had ever taken part in. Media reports outside Iran claim that “hardliners,” the far-right conservatives, will perform well. Iran’s regime claims the interior ministry is safely guarding the votes that came in. Some Iranians mocked the election with posters of characters from Game of Thrones and even Snoop Dogg, illustrating the lack of choice they had to vote for.Some people on social media claimed they had voted and were excited. But it was hard to confirm if they were real people or regime elements putting up English-language tweets to make the country seem like it had a major election. “The Iranian people really take the political system seriously and are eager to participate,” one woman tweeted. But in Shiraz, video showed no one voting at one polling station. Another person put up a video of a long line, saying it was people gathering to get clothes, while at the end of the video a deserted voting booth is shown. The people were apparently not there to vote.While some called the elections “staged” or a “joke,” the Supreme Leader did set an example and voted early. Meanwhile in the Netherlands, Iranians protested outside the Iranian embassy. There have been calls to boycott from across Iranian exile communities in Europe. In Ahvaz and other areas the boycott seemed to work. In Yazd the officials kept the voting open until nine in the evening, hoping that a few people would turn up. “Empty voting booths,” “empty," were the tweets about voting that were placed online by those who oppose the regime. A video from the Kurdish region of Iran showed a courtyard outside of a government voting station with not one person voting.It is hard to quantify the videos to see if they are indicative of the whole country. Tasnim News says that from 8 a.m. people had been voting for 290 MPs in 208 constituencies. There were elections across 30 provinces at 55,000 locations for 7,000 candidates. It is the country’s 11th parliamentary elections. Turnout in Iran for pesidential elections are often said to be above 70% while parliamentary elections is over 60%. The last parliamentary elections were in 2016. The last presidential election was in 2017.Iran is in the midst of an economic downturn due to sanctions, and an outbreak of coronavirus may have helped make people stay home. Protests last year were met with brutal suppression and 1,500 people were killed. Iranians appear unhappy with the direction of the country but have little choice to change it.
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