Ivan Sascha Sheehan, Originally published in Townhall, June 08, 2024
On June 29, expatriate Iranian activists will gather in Berlin from all across Europe to participate in a rally organized by the leading coalition of democratic opposition groups, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Similar summertime gatherings, many held outside Paris, have attracted upwards of 100,000 attendees, including high-profile political supporters from Europe, the United States, and across the world. All indications point to the forthcoming event being well-attended, and just as vigorously supported by international dignitaries and the NCRI’s many global supporters.
The event’s timing is uniquely significant this year. The demonstration will be held just one day after the Islamic Republic holds a special “election” to determine who will take the place of Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s former president who died in a helicopter crash in mid-May. Whomever assumes the mantle is certain to carry on the brutal domestic repression and violent regional interference that became synonymous with Raisi’s tenure during his three years in office.
This is so because the occupant of Iran’s presidency is the Islamic Republic’s second highest ranking official and is responsible for implementing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s edicts and wishes. Khamenei, the ultimate authority in all matters of state, provided his former Chief Justice with the backing needed to coast into office in 2021 following a tightly controlled election in which he effectively ran unopposed. The forthcoming election will be no less of a sham, and the Berlin rally that follows can be expected to spotlight Tehran’s democratic farce while pushing Western governments to adopt policies that formally recognize the illegitimacy of Iran’s ruling theocracy.
Ordinary Iranians have repeatedly underscored their contempt for their illiberal rulers by refusing to participate in the regime’s parody of democracy. The election that brought Raisi to power was undermined by a massive electoral boycott and the parliamentary elections earlier this year broke the record for low turnout that had been set less than three years earlier. Official government statistics suggest that just eight percent of would-be voters in the nation’s capital participated in that contest.
Political boycotts in Iran are an expression of more than four-decades of accumulated grievances, and a tell tale reflection of the people’s desire to see the ayatollahs driven from power and a new era of accountability ushered in. In fact, the NCRI’s main constituent group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), and its network of “Resistance Units” inside the Islamic Republic, have explicitly promoted electoral boycotts for years as means of signaling the popular discontent so palpable on the Iranian street and manifesting a brighter future. READ MORE