Iran’s hardliners took the lead in preliminary vote counts in the capital Tehran on Saturday after record-low turnout in parliamentary elections. Official turnout figures have not yet been released, but the state-run Islamic News Agency said unofficial reports put turnout at 41%.
After the polls closed, videos and reports showed many people using their ID numbers to vote. Until this election, birth certificates had been required as proof of voter identification.Without that requirement, voters could have used their own national ID numbers, leading to a claimed participation rate of 25 million, the newspaper reported hamshahrI am a strong supporter of the government of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi.
About 25 million voters equaled a turnout of about 41%, a record low.
Another report was more detailed. The report said that in Friday’s election, 86% of voters used national identity cards to vote, 11% used birth certificates, 3% used driver’s licenses, and less than 1% used passports and military service completion cards to vote. .
According to images published by the Islamic Republic’s state media, the identity verification and ballot issuance process was conducted manually. Without a nationwide electronic voting registration system, it is unclear how authorities can ensure that individuals with various identification documents cannot vote multiple times in different branches and constituencies.
Amid the election day atmosphere, social media users deemed the statistics misleading, suggesting the Islamic Republic was involved in “statistical manipulation” by registering citizens’ national identification numbers in the system.
In the final hours of voting, numerous videos circulating on social media depicting various Iranians suggested that some citizens’ identification numbers had been recorded in the system, showing they had voted before they had actually cast their vote. As of this writing, official authorities have yet to formally respond to these election suspicions.
As the newspaper demonstrates, low voter turnout in Iran’s elections is noteworthy Ham-Meehan, The original front-page headline read “The Silent Majority.” However, there are reports that Iranian security forces forced the newspaper to change the headline of Saturday’s edition to “Presence and Absence.”
Circulating videos also highlighted Iranians’ frustration with census manipulation, with some users reporting that when visiting polling stations they discovered they had been registered to vote in the system hours earlier.
this Hal Wash News websites reported that on Friday morning, residents of Sital village in Sarbuk district, Qasr-e Qand county, prevented polling staff from setting up and deploying ballot boxes in the community.
Hal Wash In order to prevent the village of Sitar from recording zero votes, the governor of Qasr-e Qand ordered the use of national identification numbers to register votes in the names of villagers, the report said. The ballots were then put into the ballot box.
Despite low turnout and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s past criticism of 40% turnout in some national elections as “shameful”, government-affiliated media announced minutes after the voting deadline that voters in the March 1 election The participation rate exceeded 40%. Passed.
Videos submitted by VOA viewers and images circulated on other Persian-language television services abroad and on social media contradict these claims.
On Friday, Abram Paley, the US State Department’s deputy envoy for Iran, took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to share his thoughts on the elections in the Islamic Republic, saying: “The Iranian regime is trying to use these elections as a showcase . democratic, but it has disqualified thousands of candidates. The Iranian people are fully aware that these elections, no matter the outcome, do not truly represent them, and we stand with them in that belief.”
He reiterated the United States’ commitment to stand with the people of Iran, saying: “The United States will continue to crack down on regime officials who engage in such human rights violations and deny Iranians basic freedoms. We will continue to stand with the people of Iran.” Iranians struggle for a future of freedom and democracy. ”
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