Turnout in Iran's parliamentary election was around 41%, the lowest participation since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, according to the country's interior minister.
Amid mounting economic struggles and a lack of electoral options for a predominately young population at odds with political and social restrictions, Friday's election represented a test of the establishment's legitimacy.
"Some 25 million people out of over 61 million eligible Iranians voted in the March 1 election for the 290-seat legislature," Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told a televised news conference.
Reuters reported turnout in the 2020 parliamentary election was 42.5%, whereas 62% of voters participated in 2016.
Authorities deemed the turnout a show of lack of trust for the sacred system of the Islamic Republic.
Vahidi said invalid votes made up 5% of the total vote count while several Iranian media outlets reported the number as high as 30%, indicating delusion among loyal supporters of the Islamic Republic.
"Authorities should listen to the silent majority ... and reform the governance method ... I hope they realize before it's too late to reverse the damage and harm this path will cause," state media quoted reformist politician Azar Mansouri.
According to The Associated Press, it took days for Iran to announce the turnout statistics and offered no explanation behind the holdout. Seeing that the Interior Ministry runs the elections in Iran, there is no significant international observation to account for the provided data.
Authorities kept polls open an additional six hours on Friday. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf even posted online urging people to call "their friends or acquaintances right now and convince them to participate in the elections."
Iranians Boycott Elections
Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi among many other Iranians, has publicly pushed for the boycott of elections. The vote also marks the first since the 2022 mass protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested and killed over allegedly not wearing her required hijab to "the liking of authorities."
The boycott places immense pressure on Iran's government as Iran's theocracy has revolved its legitimacy on turnout in elections ever since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Reformists were prohibited from running in this year's election as authorities condemned calls for change within the country's government.
The current parliament includes 18 pro-reform politicians and 38 others identified as independents. Of those winning seats, only 11 were women, reported the AP.
The failure of any candidate to get 20% of the vote is highly likely to happen as many votes are voided or because too many candidates were in the running. Iran's 2021 presidential election witnessed a high number of votes, mostly from citizens who felt obliged to cast a ballot and showed any interest in the government-approved candidates. Ebrahim Raisi won the majority vote in that election.
"The Friday elections appear to have reaffirmed that Iranian policies will not change in the foreseeable future, but the vote demonstrated the Iranian public is broadly dissatisfied with the course the Islamic Republic is taking," the New York-based Soufan Center think tank said in an analysis Monday.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani rejected criticism by the U.S. government over the vote.
"If U.S government officials are concerned about democracies and votes of nations, they should first find a fix for their own country and election system's health in America itself as we are seeing strange stories in every U.S election," Kanaani said, without elaborating. Iranian state media prominently features any negative story about America, particularly during U.S. elections.
Raisi, a protégé of Khamenei and considered his possible successor, reclaimed his seat.
