Interior Minister of Raisi's Government Deletes Tweet Celebrating 8% Election Turnout

Ahmad Vahidi, the Interior Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, deleted a tweet he posted on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that described the second round of the parliamentary elections as a creation of a "epic" by the people, just hours after it sparked widespread reactions. According to statistics provided by Islamic Republic officials, 92% of eligible voters in Tehran did not participate in the second round of elections. Tehran is the largest and most populous city in Iran. In his tweet published on Saturday, Ahmad Vahidi wrote: "The second round of elections has ended. Thank God the people created an epic. I thank all honorable people. I also thank all my colleagues in the Ministry of Interior, security and law enforcement agencies, the Guardian Council, and the public observers." Ahmad Vahidi's tweet, which called the second round of the 1403 parliamentary elections an epic, drew reactions from former senior government officials. Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology during Hassan Rouhani's presidency, tweeted under Vahidi's post that "probably" Vahidi meant the 92% abstention in Tehran by "epic." The widespread boycott of elections in Iran and simultaneously calling it an "epic" by the Interior Minister of the Islamic Republic comes as government officials, from Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, to Ahmad Reza Radan, the commander of the police force, have repeatedly stated on behalf of the Iranian people that their policies, including the enforcement of mandatory hijab and government crackdowns on women with optional hijab, are the "will" of the people. However, the election boycott has shown that there is a significant gap between what the Iranian people want and what the officials of the Islamic Republic claim on their behalf. The parliamentary elections were held in Esfand 1402 and recorded a participation rate of about 40%, the lowest participation rate in the history of the Islamic Republic, leading to a second round. Opponents of the Islamic Republic and international observers do not consider elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran to be free and fair. This was the first election in the Islamic Republic following protests over the death of Mahsa Amini in the morality police and public opposition to mandatory hijab. Earlier last winter, Prince Reza Pahlavi had called on the people to boycott the elections, describing them as a "circus election." The hashtag "circus election" became widely used and "trending" on Twitter. Domestic news websites in Iran reported that Bijan Nobaveh, a former employee of state television who was elected as the first representative from Tehran to the Islamic Consultative Assembly, received only 3.5% of the votes from eligible voters in this city, meaning he does not represent over 96% of the people of Tehran. Some observers say that even this low government figure should be viewed with skepticism and that the actual participation rate is likely lower than the official statistics.