Iranian people’s message in elections: Our vote = regime overthrow

The Iranian people did not welcome the February 26^th sham elections and according to live reports from many polling stations, voting came to an end on Friday in a cold and spiritless atmosphere of intense security measures. Despite all the advertisement and various camps pouring money and investing efforts to lure people to the polls, which of course has roots in an obvious and growing power struggle amongst the ruling brass, state officials were extremely nervous throughout the day of any possible protest.

This year’s elections in Iran, like those in the past, was the scene of a total religious dictatorship imposing its hegemony as if it were blessed with credibility from God, forever to come.

The irony is the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, always insists on cloaking his one-man rule mentality with a robe of democracy and popular rule. Such efforts are aimed at portraying his entire apparatus as democratic and people-friendly in the eyes of the outside world.

However, after 37 years of first-hand experience inside the country and abroad, there is no delusion for anyone that religious dictatorship ruling Iran bears no democratic characteristic to hold true elections. The elections witnessed in Iran are based on the principles of a theocracy and a religious rule.

All candidates have to first ensure their complete and undisputed loyalty, both in in mind and actions, to the supreme religious leader, now being Khamenei. Representatives of the Islamic state in Iran must also prove in action their utter devotion to the Revolutionary Guards and the countless entities acting under the close watch of the supreme leader. Therefore, an iron-grip control by a spiritual leader with complete authority, being Khamenei as the supreme leader, was needed, because he and only has the power to determine and finalize all major decisions on domestic and foreign issues, most importantly national security.

The regime places numerous obstacles before those described as candidates, and finally disqualifying hundreds and culling those seen fit according to their own index. What we have here is not an election process, and the selected few are vetted to ensure their undisputable allegiance to the despotic religious regime.

From the nuclear agreement sealed with the West the Iranian people have gained nothing but poverty, unemployment, skyrocketing prices for daily goods, growing political and social restrictions, increasing executions and more. To what extent the Iranian people actually played a role in these elections? The answer will be seen in the substantive results of this referendum and changes to come, if any, in the near future.

The vast majority of the Iranian people boycotted these so-called elections, having no trust or hope in this process. The general public has realized long ago there will be changes in the regime’s domestic policies rendering from any elections. Unemployment has reached a whopping 50%, and while Iran is a country rich in natural resources and potential, 80% of the population are barely making ends meet. The ruling elite are allocating oil revenues to the Revolutionary Guards and other state-associated organs. The people are finding themselves marginalized more than ever before while the regime continues to allocate billions for its support for terrorism, and meddling in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. While all countries assign their budget to their people’s prosperity, development and welfare, the Iranian nation’s God-given wealth are distributed to such ends. Tehran also distributes this enormous amount of money between its vast networks assigned to build weapons of mass destruction and missiles.

For over two decades this regime spent hundreds of billions of dollars of the Iranian people’s wealth in its campaign to obtain nuclear weapons. Finally, suffering a humiliating finish and political-economic setback, Khamenei and the entire establishment were forced to back-down from their dangerous ambitions. As far as the Iranian people are concerned, they see no hope in the near future under the framework of this regime.

Nonetheless, despite all the domestic crackdown, detentions and executions imposed by this Islamic state upon the Iranian people, strikes and demonstrations by all walks of life are alive and active across the country. Iran is described as a powder keg, as people are increasingly furious over oppression and poverty, and many other escalating crises.

Recently a state-run news agency in Iran reported, “The government is under siege by numerous crises, with dire conditions seen in various parts of the country. The status quo may ignite at any moment. Conditions in today’s society are very disappointing, sitting on the brink of a major outbreak. People are fed up and day after day they are voicing their protests, dissent and abhorrence, and state repressive organs are no longer of any use.”