Iran: Pezeshkian’s Futile Mission To Save The Mullahs’ Regime – OpEd

On July 21, the incoming president of the Iranian regime Massoud Pezeshkian told the Majlis (parliament), “Dear people who came, despite the propaganda that was made to keep them from coming to the ballot boxes, they came and gave a strong punch to the mouths of those who were sitting abroad and inside the country and were doing propaganda”.

These brazen remarks by the president, referring to the 88 percent of Iranians who did not participate in regime’s sham elections, sparked a wave of anger and continuous backlash. So much so that he pathetically tried to cover it up by writing on his X account: “The enemies of the Iranian people did everything they could to prevent people from coming to the ballot boxes. The account of the honorable people who are dissatisfied for any reason is separate from the enemies and ill-wishers”.

Pezeshkian, the “spontaneous” president, who thus revealed his anti-people nature, apparently forgot that in the second election debate on July 2, told his rival Saeed Jalili: “With all the disputes between me and him, with all this shouting, 40 percent of the people came, 60 percent did not come and do not accept either of us. If this way of thinking comes, it becomes 20 percent. Can this 20 percent rule over the rest of the majority?”

Moreover, the 40 percent participation is a fabricated figure by the regime, and the actual number is much lower than what the regime has announced. In remarks about why he participated in the presidential election show, Pezeshkian said: “I came because I saw the system in danger.” He further explained: “In the second round of the parliamentary elections, only 8 percent participated, and this level of participation was very dangerous. If the public participation in the presidential election had also been like this, unfavorable conditions would have prevailed, and the whole system would have been questioned”. (Source: the IRGC-run Tasnim News Agency – July 19).

These remarks contain two admissions, one claim, and one delusion:

Admission of a full-scale boycott of the election show

Admission of the meaning and result of this boycott that if the presidential election was boycotted like the parliamentary election, “the whole system would have been questioned,” meaning the regime would have been overthrown.

The claim is that with his arrival, conditions have changed, public participation has increased, and consequently, the regime has been saved from collapse.

And the delusion that he (Pezeshkian) has come to save the regime from falling.

In the above statements, points 1 and 2 are correct. An 8 percent participation rate in any system’s elections anywhere in the world means that system lacks legitimacy and social acceptance and is doomed to fall.

Additionally, during this admission, Pezeshkian has made another admission. He admitted to the accuracy of the statistics that the Iranian Resistance announced regarding the participation rate in the second round of the parliamentary election show, stating that the participation rate was 7 percent

However, the claim that with Pezeshkian’s arrival the result has changed is false. First, because the participation rate did not significantly change with his arrival; the actual participation rate in the first round of the presidential election show was 12 percent and in the second round was 9 percent Even if we consider the fabricated figures announced by the regime (below 40 percent in the first round and below 50 percent in the second round), this is the lowest participation rate in presidential elections in the history of the regime. Even according to the regime’s official statistics, Pezeshkian has assumed the presidency with the fewest votes (relative to the population) compared to all the regime’s presidents.

This is further proof that the regime is past the point of being saved, and the only fate awaiting the regime is overthrow by the people of Iran and their organized Resistance movement.