"NO" to Mandated Election

Joint Statement

"NO" to Mandated Election

“YES” to Structural Political Changes for the Transition to Democracy

In implementing the hardcore agenda to unify the regime and influence the issue of "the Supreme Leader" succession, the Guardian Council disqualified a number of credible regime officials and introduced a list of seven candidates for the presidential election. In the Islamic Republic, elections have never been free and only candidates from the ruling factions could run. This upcoming presidential election is similar to the period of the presidential elections from 1981 to 1997, when the presidents were practically appointed before the voting day. This presidential election is so restricted and engineered that it is not possible for even many insiders to enter it. The Guardian Council disqualified the former president, the current first vice president, the several-time speaker of the parliament and a large number of former and current members of the parliament. Most of the disqualified are from close circles of the Velayat-e-Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist) who were put aside in the interest of the system.

The combination proposed by the Guardian Council means that the outcome of this election is determined before it is held. That is, there is no election, but what is going on is direct appointment made by the head of the regime. The head of the regime has already appointed the next president and wants to recognize it by holding unipolar elections. Ali Khamenei had long ago declared the characteristics of a candidate for the system in the form of a "Young Revolutionary Government." In the current election, Ibrahim Ra'isi, a member of the death squad in 1988 who is legally and criminally responsible for the sentencing of thousands of prisoners, is the regime's main candidate, and others have been qualified to stage. This arrangement has been carried out at the request of the head of power and with the mediation of the Guardian Council and the military-security organs. Elections of this quality face widespread boycott; Therefore, the officials of the regime, aware of this situation and in order to neutralize the consequences of the elections, which will reflect the lack of legitimacy of the system, speak of the insignificance of the people's vote. But in a contradictory approach, the military-law enforcement-security institutions have threatened those who have called for boycott and created a security atmosphere.

With respect to form, the power structure of the Islamic Republic is based on the dualism of republic-guardianship (Velayat) that the elected institutions were under the control of the institution of Velayat-e-Faqih and the screening of the Guardian Council from the very beginning. The confrontation between elected and appointed institutions has had its ups and downs over time, but in the first decade of the twenty first century the dualism became weaker and weaker, and now at the beginning of the second decade it is becoming the sole rule of the extreme spectrum of the fundamentalists. After elections became mandatory, the flawed republican system has completely lost its meaning and the structure of the system is becoming a kind of Shiite caliphate within the paradigm of the Islamic ruling. For the institution of Velayat-e-Faqih, headed by Khamenei, like all tyrants of the history, the people's vote means nothing, and the people are relevant to the extent that they serve their interests. Khamenei, more determined than ever and with bullying, has concentrated power entirely in his own hands.

The Islamic Republic is facing intertwined crises such as crises of legitimacy, authority and incompetency, widespread dissatisfaction of the people, a movement of demands and street uprisings on the one hand, and international pressures, especially crippling economic sanctions, on the other. This situation has put the country in a deadlock. The head of power does not believe in opening the political space, providing the conditions for free elections and changing the political, economic and social structures in order to break the current stalemate. The hardcore of power sees the solution in unifying the system so that it can withstand widespread popular discontent and protests and international pressure and move forward with Khamenei's succession without strong shocks. The solution chosen by the regime will lead our country to the vortex of endless crises and destructive tensions.

Being aware of the Islamic Republic's plan to hold mandated election and given the frustration of large groups of people at the ballot box in the Islamic Republic to change policy and open the horizon for the country's future and structural bottlenecks, the three secular Republican parties and organizations, some time ago, issued a statement urging their compatriots inside and outside the country to say "NO" to the mandated election in any way they can. They stressed that the hardcore of the power wants to use the people's vote to legitimize the regime. The trends of the past months and the announcement of the list of candidates confirmed the validity of the upfront boycott policy of this election show.

To strengthen the active boycott, the "I DO NOT VOTE" campaign was supported in order to ensure the unification of the forces that are pushing for the boycott of the election and to launch a mass protest action. Dissatisfaction with the mandated election and the arrangement of candidates by the Guardian Council is now spreading at the community level and among political and civil activists. Let us try to turn the "I DO NOT VOTE" campaign into protest action in various forms and at a higher level, raise the boycott movement to a movement to strengthen national solidarity in Iran to say “NO” to tyranny and authoritarianism.

We, the three political organizations, once again call on the people not to participate in the mandated election. We call on the people by actively and purposefully imposing boycott while demonstrating their power, let the rulers hear their protests against mandated election, destructive regime policies, poverty, unemployment, inflation and adventurous policies of the Islamic Republic in the region. Let us not to allow the regime to use the people's vote to restore its legitimacy. We call on the freedom-loving and democratic political forces to oppose the regime's plan to hold this showy and degraded election. We demand the observance of the criteria of free and fair elections in the framework of the transition to democracy and establishment of a democratic secular republic instead of the Islamic Republic and the handing over of the country to the real elected people.

Political-Executive Boards of:

United Republicans of Iran

The Left Party of Iran (People’s Fadaian)

Union for Secular Republic and Human Rights in Iran (USRHR)

May 29, 2021