Iranian election boycott
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It seems there are two societies, and only one of them thinks today is election day.
“There is no ‘we’ in Iran. There is just ‘they’, the government, the 95%. We don’t exist as a voice. Why should we participate in an election for which nothing will change?”
Iranian society is physically and politically sick, the youngest son of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the principal architects of the Iranian revolution has said. Yasser Rafsanjani reflected on the sweeping gains made by the conservatives on a record low turnout of 42 % at the weekend’s parliamentary elections.
Yasser Rafsanjani said: “People vote when they think it will create change. The people felt they kept sending a message to the government but they are not heard. In the last elections, people voted for a parliament to bring change, and it did not happen but there are forces outside the parliament – politicians, military guards – that limit the power of the parliament.”
He added: “Democracy has become a eunuch. It has been castrated. Our society is somehow sick. We are infected by viruses … such as coronavirus but also a societal virus where people do not respect others.”Yasser said throwing people into jail for their beliefs was not the answer. “My father always said you can eradicate bodies but you cannot delete ideas.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/23/iranian-society-is-sick-says-son-of-former-president
“Usually they give us a choice of bad and worse, so we chose bad to avoid worse. This time it was just the worst, so why bother?” Rouhollah, an unemployed engineering graduate from Teheran, said.
Shahram, a conscript on military service, said that all military personnel had been forced to vote, but he had spoilt his ballot.
–from today’s Times.
Not much different from here, then.
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