Iran’s parliamentary elections marked by low turnout and popular anger

Friday’s vote more sombre and apprehensive than the country’s last elections, reports Kim Sengupta in Tehran

A voter flashes the victory sign after casting her ballot at a Tehran polling station on Friday (EPA)

The scenes at Iran’s parliamentary elections, one of the most significant in the country’s recent history, were very different from those at polls a few years back.

Then there had been a rush to the vote in a spirit of celebration at the prospect of opening up to the outside world, following the landmark deal between international powers over the country’s nuclear programme.

Since then Donald Trump had sought to sabotage that agreement by pulling the US out of it and imposing punitive sanctions on Iran. The economy is in a parlous state, there has been sporadic but widespread street protests, and deep concern that recent flashes of violence may end in a devastating conflict.

Now, only relatively small crowds turned out to vote; the mood subdued and sombre, with deep apprehension about what an uncertain future holds, and anger directed towards politicians at home as well as enemies abroad.

The assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), by the US came after steadily rising tension, with the seizure of oil tankers in the Gulf and attacks on American bases and the embassy in Iraq.

Pictures of the commander had been put up near polling stations and carried by many voters. Some hardline candidates had used the slogan “I am Qassem Soleimani”, drawing protest from reformers pointing out that the man himself had stayed neutral in domestic politics.

The polls, against the background of turbulence, will also show which direction this country of 83 million people, one of the main strategic players in the Middle East, will take in the future. Failure by the reformists to cling on to power will bring in the hardliners who are intrinsically hostile to the west and are suspicious of economic and social liberalisation measures inside the country.

The forecasts had been for a low turnout and there were markedly fewer voters in many polling stations compared to the parliamentary elections in 2016, and the presidential ones a year later. Results, say officials, are expected to emerge on Saturday.

However, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, and other senior figures have warned that voters staying away would be used by the US and its allies to claim public discord. Late in the afternoon state television announced that the polling stations would be kept open for two extra hours to fit in a sudden rush by the electorate.

Ayatollah Khameini declared it was the “religious and patriotic duty” of people to vote.

“The more people attend ballot boxes, the stronger parliament will be”, he said.

“Today’s participation in the elections is a religious verdict and duty. You are witnessing how the US propaganda is trying to create a division between the Islamic establishment and the people. They are working and planning continuously.”

Journalists attending the traditional early morning vote by the Ayatollah were medically tested for any sign of coronavirus. Four people have died from the disease in Iran this week and 18 cases have been confirmed. Officials said fear of contracting the illness may keep people away from the polls. Opposition activists claimed this was an excuse to hide voter disenchantment.

No one in my family, none of my friends are voting. I have just come here to see how many people turn up

Zahra, citizen

While the public anger and defiance sparked by the assassination of General Soleimani on the orders of Trump is still echoed in the streets, domestic politicians are also held responsible for much of the problems besetting the country.

The reformists in parliament and the government of President Hassan Rouhani, beneficiaries of the optimism which swept the electorate then, now face increasing criticism as the promised bonanza which came with the signing of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action) failed to materialise.

Rouhani urged unity and solidarity. “We should all stand alongside one another … We should resolve the problems together. That day when the US despairs, its maximum pressure will have no effect. It will surrender, come to the negotiation table, and accept the word of truth, we need to show that we are together,” said the president.

But many voters were not convinced.

“Who is to blame, the government or American sanctions, I would say half each,” held Amir Sharafi, a businessman living in the more affluent and liberal part of the capital.

“Of course the sanctions have caused a lot of problems, but the politicians must also bear responsibility for what has happened. There is inefficiency and there is corruption, and people can see that. Necessary measures simply have not been taken.”

Mr Sharafi, who owns a car dealership, and his wife Mariam, had voted for liberal parliamentary candidates and Rouhani for the presidency in 2016 and 2017.

They came to their neighbourhood polling station, Esmat school, but then turned back. “We really don’t think anything much can be changed by us voting, so we have decided not to vote this time. We are going back home, we are not going to waste any more time here,” said Ms Sharafi.

At the Loradzeh mosque in Khorasan Street, 77-year-old Zahra, who did not want her family name published, had also taken the same decision. The area is more conservative, and more working class, but she and her family had voted for Rouhani.

“No one in my family, none of my friends are voting,” said Zahra. “I have just come here to see how many people turn up. But I don’t think the politicians have the right to our votes, they were supposed to help people like us and they have done nothing for us.”

The conservatives – or principalists as they term themselves – were against the nuclear deal, repeatedly warning that one could not trust the west, and that national security was being compromised by allowing in foreign inspectors. They have repeatedly declared during the campaign that they have been vindicated and must now be allowed to take charge.

Of course the sanctions have caused a lot of problems, but the politicians must also bear responsibility for what has happened

Amir Sharafi, businessman

A main priority for the hardliners, should they get control of parliament, will be an attempt to curb the powers of President Rouhani, and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who had been key figures in signing the nuclear deal. The government will face an extremely difficult time, with a hostile legislature, while it serves its term until next year’s presidential elections.

Supporters of the conservatives held that attempts to reach out to the west had failed, and Iran must now protect itself as it had done in the decades of confrontation in the past. Britain, as well as America, was accused of having a record of hostile action against Iran in decades of confrontation.

“We cannot forget Britain’s part in the famine in the First World War, when millions of people died because British soldiers took away transport and people died because food could not be moved,” said Ali Reza, a 47-year-old shopkeeper. Ebrahim Darbandi pointed to more recent history and the plot by UK and US intelligence which overthrew the reformist prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh. “I also don’t think the UK will support the [nuclear] deal, which they say they are doing, for much longer – Boris Johnson will follow Trump’s order.”

Mohammad Ali Zarringhalam, who was injured in the war against Iraq and arrived to cast his vote at the Hussainia mosque, said: “We did not think for one minute that the deal would last. We know that the Americans have always been our enemy and that was not going to stop.”

Zarringhalam held Iran had withstood American pressure under “strong leaders” such as the hardline populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and, he wanted to point out, “we can do so again. We must depend on ourselves, trust God and trust our people to elect the right leaders.”

Zarringhalam stressed that he did not want voters to stay away even if that helped the conservatives. “My friends and I urge everyone to vote,” he said handing out red roses to first-time voters.

Mehdi Zojaji, 85, who came to vote on a bicycle covered by flowers and pictures of General Soleimani, was also urging people to vote. “I have not missed one election since the revolution 40 years ago. I do not care for politics, I vote on the quality of candidates. I think it’ll be bad for the country if people get out of the habit of voting.”

Supporters of the Rouhani government wanted voters to consider how the US sanctions have hurt the economy. “This wouldn’t have happened without Trump. We didn’t elect Trump,” said Colonel Ali Essmaeilian, a retired air force officer, “it is unfair to say our leaders are responsible for what happened. We just need to cope with what’s happening without turning on each other.”