{"id":578,"date":"2013-05-12T23:51:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-12T19:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iransview.com\/?p=578"},"modified":"2013-05-12T23:51:11","modified_gmt":"2013-05-12T19:21:11","slug":"irans-elections-vote-yes-or-no-just-be-sure-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/irans-elections-vote-yes-or-no-just-be-sure-to-vote\/578\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s Elections: Vote Yes or No, Just Be Sure To Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Iranian leadership has a talent of mobilizing people when it is needed. From the 8-year Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) when many Iranians under 16 (the legal age of military recruiting), falsified their birth certificates to volunteer in the \u201cHoly Defense\u201d, to the mass support of Iran\u2019s nuclear program and high turnouts in lots of elections, the people\u2019s presence has always emboldened the leadership\u2019s authority in the international arena and increased its bargaining power.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"iran<\/a>Since the 2009 Post-election protests turned into riots, many of the reformists\u2019 leaders were severely sidelined and all predictions suggested a sharp decline in the people’s participation in subsequent presidential elections.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Iran\u2019s supreme leader Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei in all of his elections related public speeches has stressed the need for the wide participation of people.<\/a> And maybe he was the only one to say there will be a mass presence of people in the next elections with high confidence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As we got closer to the 2013 presidential election time, speculation over which groups and individuals will take part in the election increased. Debates got hotter as the supreme leader gave a green light to reformists.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The last minute registrations of controversial candidates with different ways of thinking such as Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Saeed Jalili completely changed the atmosphere of the Iranian elections.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gatherings and street rallies by candidates\u2019 supporters recalled the 2009 electoral enthusiasm which resulted in an 85% turnout the highest turnout ever in the Islamic Republic\u2019s presidential elections.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now approaching the 2013 presidential election, while nobody expects a repetition of the 2009\u2019s unprecedented enthusiasm, a management of the country\u2019s political atmosphere and allowing different tastes to take part in the election led to the early formation of an electoral atmosphere and changed people\u2019s routine discussions\u2019 into topics related to the candidates.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Contrary to some people’s expectations Iran\u2019s leadership do not look at the current political and social conditions as negative. Actually disagreements and controversies around the reformists\u2019 and administration backed candidate’s policies seem to be a factor in increasing people’s engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And disputes arising from possible disqualification of some candidates like Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei who is fully backed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will also help to make the elections more significant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The leadership wants a wide presence of people at the next election. Because it will be a reaffirmation of the regime by the people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s leader has also always stressed on the \u201cpeople\u2019s participation\u201d much more than any other factor.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Iranian leadership has a talent of mobilizing people when it is needed. From the 8-year Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) when many Iranians under 16 (the legal age of military recruiting), falsified their birth certificates to volunteer in the \u201cHoly Defense\u201d, to the mass support of Iran\u2019s nuclear program and high turnouts in lots of elections, the people\u2019s presence has always emboldened the leadership\u2019s authority in the international arena and increased its bargaining power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2],"tags":[39,83,12,82,113,535,45,20,539,78,25,538],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/iransview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/iran-elections-ppl-voting.jpg?fit=580%2C320&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3ogT0-9k","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iransview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}