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EXPERT COMMENT

A historic low turnout points to declining public interest amid uninspiring leadership choices.

Iran’s parliamentary and Assembly of Experts election held on 1 March should not be seen as a democratic exercise where people express their will at the ballot box. As in many authoritarian countries, elections in Iran have long been used to legitimize the power and influence of the ruling elite.    

These elections come one year after Mahsa Jina Amini’s tragic death for improper veiling at the hands of Iran’s morality police – an event that sparked month long protests across the country. They also follow a brutal government crackdown, declining economic conditions and an uptick in executions. 

Rather than build back popular legitimacy through inclusive elections, the political establishment led by the aging 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has prioritized a further consolidation of conservative power across elected and unelected institutions to prepare for clerical succession.  

In an unsurprising outcome, these elections saw the lowest voter turnout in 45 years and a victory for hardline conservatives in both institutions. Amid calls for a boycott by women’s activists such as 2023 Nobel Prize winner Narges Mohammadi and even some in-country reformist politicians such as former President Muhammad Khatami (who himself did not vote) only 41 per cent of the eligible electorate participated. 

In Tehran province, voter turnout was about 24 per cent – another record low. These statistics point to a declining public interest amid uninspiring leadership choices in legitimizing the Iranian state.

Click here to continue reading the full version of this Expert Comment on the Chatham House website.