Iranians vote to replace president killed in helicopter crash, but apathy remains high

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranians voted in early elections on Friday to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisiwho died in a helicopter crash last month, as a general apathy takes hold in the Islamic Republic after years of economic problems, mass protests and tensions in the Middle East.

Voters are faced with a Choice between hardliner candidate and a little-known politician who belongs to the Iranian reform movement that wants to change the Shiite theocracy from within. As has been the case since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 Women and those who demand radical change were excluded from the vote, while the vote itself is not subject to control by internationally recognized observers.

The vote comes at a time when tensions in the Middle East are increasing due to the War between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In April Iran launched its first direct attack on Israel about the war in the Gaza Strip, while Tehran-backed militia groups in the region – such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Houthi rebels in Yemen – have become involved in the fighting and have expanded their attacks.

Meanwhile, Iran continues Enrich uranium to near weapons-grade levels and has a stockpile large enough to build multiple nuclear weapons should the company so desire.

While the 85-year-old Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Since the president has the final say in all state affairs, he can steer his country’s policy toward confrontation or negotiations with the West.

However, given the record low voter turnout in the last election, it remains unclear how many Iranians will participate in Friday’s vote.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who is responsible for overseeing the elections, announced that all polling stations opened at 8 a.m. local time. Khamenei cast one of the first votes of the election and called on the population to go to the polls.

“An enthusiastic turnout of the population and a higher number of voters – this is an absolute need for the Islamic Republic,” said Khamenei.

State television later broadcast modest images from polling stations across the country.

Analysts describe the race as a three-way battle. There are two hardliners, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi has also remained in the race despite poor poll results.

And then there is the reform candidate Masoud Pezeshkian, who has allied himself with figures such as former President Hassan Rouhani, under whose government Tehran signed the groundbreaking nuclear deal with world powers in 2015.

The nuclear agreement eventually collapsed and the hardliners regained full control.

The 69-year-old heart surgeon is striving for a return to the nuclear agreement and better relations with the West. After the vote, he told journalists: “God willing, we will try to maintain friendly relations with all countries except Israel.”

The comment came after he received a thinly veiled warning from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his rapprochement with the US. It was an attempt by the candidate to mobilise those who want greater rapprochement with the West following the collapse of the country’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2015. But close ties with the West – particularly the US – would be anathema to the hardliners he faces.

Higher turnout could boost Pezeshkian’s chances, but it remains unclear whether he can build the necessary momentum to get voters to the polls. There have been calls for a boycott, including from imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi.

Voting began shortly after President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump completed voting. their first televised debate for the US presidential elections, in which Iran was also discussed.

Trump described Iran as “broke” under his administration and emphasized his decision to launch a drone strike in 2020 that Revolutionary Guard General Qassem SoleimaniThis attack was part of a spiral of escalating tensions between America and Iran since Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.

More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 are eligible to vote, about 18 million of whom are between 18 and 30 years old.

According to Iranian law, a winner must receive more than 50 percent of all votes cast. If this does not happen, a runoff election between the two leading candidates will take place a week later. There has only been one runoff election in Iranian history, in 2005, when hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Raisi, 63, died in the May 19 helicopter crash that also killed the country’s foreign minister and others. He was considered a protégé of Khamenei and a potential successor as supreme leader. Yet many knew him as part of the mass executions Iran carried out in 1988 and as part of the bloody crackdown on dissidents following protests against the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested by police because of the allegedly inappropriate wearing of the prescribed headscarf or hijab.

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Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran.