Last week's Election Boycott was a success

Sardar Haddad:

Although the Islamic republic has claimed that turnout was high in its sham election on June 17, and some journalist were duped by the regime’s election propaganda show, many independent Iranian journalists and political observers agree that the election charade was boycotted by the overwhelming majority of Iranians in all provinces. Even some of the candidates have said that the election results were rigged.

One candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, has said that there were irregularities in the election. “I firmly believe that a lot of bribe has taken place and in a number of cities very strange things have occurred,” he said. The regime has shut down Eqbal newspaper in order to prevent it from publishing Karroubi’s comments about fraud in the election.

Karroubi's senior campaign manager, Ibrahim Amini, has accused the armed forces of manipulating the election and changing the vote counts in Tehran, Esfahan, Yazd and Qom. Another candidate, Mostafa Moin, has also said that the election was rigged.

The mullahs fabricated the high turnout in order to claim legitimacy for their regime. Islamic republic’s leader Ali Khamenei had demanded more than 60 percent turnout. The mullahs arbitrarily assigned fake vote counts to their handpicked candidates. The entire electoral process is monopolized by the mullahs, and there is no credible and independent oversight to give validity and legitimacy to the election. The mullahs were able to manipulate some journalists by limiting their access to voting locations, and taking them to voting locations that had been selected for propaganda purposes.

Distinguished Iranian journalist Alireza Meybodi, who has sources in all regions of Iran, has said that the overwhelming majority of Iranians boycotted the mullah election. Many sources in Iran have indicated that less than 25 percent of eligible voters participated in the election.

The mullahs fabricated the result that Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad got the most votes, to continue their “good mullah, bad mullah” scam. Since Rafsanjani pretends to be a pragmatic moderate, and Ahmadinejad plays the role of the sadistic Hezbollahi, the regime hopes to trick more people to vote in the runoff.

The choice in the runoff is between two terrorists. Neither Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani nor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is capable of solving Iran’s problems. Both have committed heinous crimes against the Iranian people, and both should be tried for their terrorist activities. Choosing between Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad is like choosing between Saddam’s sons Uday and Qusay. READ MORE

Contrary to the regime’s propaganda, the Islamic republic has never had free and democratic elections. The mullahs handpick the candidates from the regime’s mafia families. In the Islamic republic, power is controlled by non-elected mullahs, and the elections are used as a tool to create the perception of legitimacy for the regime.

The regime’s elections don’t have the basic conditions for free and democratic elections. The regime does not permit any pro-democracy candidates. All pro-democracy parties are banned by the regime. All television and radio programs are owned by the mullahs. Any publication that criticizes the leaders of the regime is closed. The regime uses intimidation methods to coerce government employees and students to participate in the elections.

The Khomeinist regime has brutally violated the human rights of the Iranian people, and there are thousands of political prisoners. Many political prisoners have been in prison since the massive student demonstrations of July 1999.

As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has indicated, “the appearance of elections does not mask the organised cruelty of Iran's theocratic state.”

"The Iranian people are capable of liberty. They desire liberty. And they deserve liberty. The time has come for the unelected few to release their grip on the aspirations of the proud people of Iran," she added.

The Iranian people want freedom, democracy and human rights, and they realize that they cannot be free as long as the Islamic republic exists. Tyrannies have been replaced by democracies in many countries in the past few years, and the process can be repeated in Iran. The world will be a better place without the mullah regime.