Imagine a game in which you fix the rules, choose the players, hold a veto over the results and, yet, go on to cheat. This is what happened last Friday with the ninth set of legislative elections in the Islamic Republic in Iran. As always, the regime decided who was allowed to stand and who was not. Then, the task of running the exercise was given to the Ministry of the Interior rather than an independent election commission as is the norm all over the world. No need to say, the results could be changed or canceled by the Council of the Custodians, the mullah-dominated organ of the regime. So, with such a configuration, why cheat?
The answer is that “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei wanted a show that would give him two things. First, he wanted a large turnout so that he could claim that Iranians have moved beyond the disputed presidential election of 2009. Next, he wanted a majority for those who support his decision to transform the Islamic Republic into an imamate.
The official narrative is that Khamenei has succeeded on both scores. The claim is that almost 64 percent of those eligible actually went to the polls and that Khamenei’s most partisan supporters won at least 200 of the 290 seats in the Islamic Majlis, the regime’s fake parliament. However, a glance at the regime’s own data would refute both claims.
Full Article: Iran: Strange elections with strange results.