Iran’s Elections Expected to Have Low Voter Turnout as Calls for Boycott Left Unheeded

With Iran's elections set for Friday (March 1), many observers and analysts focus more on the voter turnout and not on the people running for office.

Some of the factors as to why Iranians are hesitating to vote include widespread discontent over the country's worsening economy, years of mass protests rocking the country, tensions with the West over the Tehran regime's nuclear program, and its support for Russia's war in Ukraine.

Officials have urged people to cast their votes, but no information has been released this year from the state-owned polling center ISPA about expected turnout, which has been a constant feature even in previous elections.

CNN reported that there were around 15,000 candidates competing for the 290-seat parliamentary election and 144 for the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, which has the power to appoint the country's Supreme Leader.

The current one, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is over 84, which means the incoming Assembly would select his successor if he died during the body's eight-year term.

It was previously reported that Iranian opposition figures like imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Nagres Mohammadi - who called the election a "sham" - have urged the public to boycott the elections.

Low Voter Turnout Expected

Both CNN and the Associated Press were able to interview Iranians, most of whom have opted not to participate in the voting.

Of the 21 Iranians the AP interviewed, only five said they would vote, while 13 would not. Three others said they were undecided.

"If I protest about some shortcoming, many police and security agents will try to stop me," said Amin, a 21-year-old university student who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals. "But if I die from hunger on the corner of one of the main streets, they will show no reaction."

Under the law, the parliament has oversight over the executive branch, votes on treaties, and handles other issues. In practice, absolute power in Iran rests with its supreme leader.

For the past two decades, hard-liners have controlled the parliament, with some of them often chanting "Death to America" in the chamber.

Under parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a former Revolutionary Guard general who supported a violent crackdown on Iranian university students in 1999, the legislature pushed forward a bill in 2020 that greatly curtailed Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, UN's nuclear watchdog.

The country's situation worsened after 22-year-old Masha Amini died in police custody in 2022, which sparked nationwide protests and called for the overthrow of the theocracy of Iran's clerical rulers. The security crackdown that followed killed over 500 people and detained 22,000 others.