Narges Mohammadi: I Will Not Participate in the Illegal Elections of the Repressive and Illegitimate Government

Narges Mohammadi, a human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, announced from Evin Prison on Saturday, June 22, that she will not participate in the presidential elections scheduled for July 8. She emphasized that the only goal of the Islamic Republic's government in holding another election is to 'consolidate its power and tyranny.' She stated, 'I will not participate in the illegal elections of the repressive and illegitimate government.' According to this prominent human rights activist, the only purpose of holding elections by a government 'that believes in repression, terror, and violence as the sole means of maintaining power, rather than respecting democracy and the rights of the people, is to consolidate power and tyranny.' Ebrahim Raisi, the former president of Iran, and his entourage were killed in a helicopter crash on May 19, leading to the elections being held earlier than scheduled on July 8. In recent years, widespread disqualifications and the government's efforts to unify the power structure in the country, along with violent repression of public protests, have brought public participation in elections to its lowest level. The decline in participation has reached a point where even reformist forces, who typically participate in elections under any circumstances, have shown no interest in participating in the elections for the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Assembly of Experts. Before Narges Mohammadi, other political activists such as Hossein Razagh and Mehdi Mahmoudian also announced that they would not go to the polls this week. Mojgan Ilanloo, a filmmaker and women's rights activist and former prisoner, also told Radio Farda that she has 'no representative' in this election. According to Mehdi Mahmoudian, 'the possibility of change through the ballot boxes has been taken away from the people,' and 'nothing has changed' in the country for people to go to the polls. Six days before the new elections, Narges Mohammadi also wrote in her short statement addressed to the leaders of the government: 'How can you, while holding a sword, gallows, weapons, and prisons against the people with one hand, place the ballot box in front of the same people with the other hand and call them to the polls with a deceitful and lying tongue?' Ms. Mohammadi further emphasized: 'Such elections will not bring legitimacy to the Islamic Republic.' This new statement from the Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner comes as she has recently been sentenced to an additional year in prison. According to her lawyer, Ms. Mohammadi's letter regarding the boycott of the parliamentary elections was cited as one of the offenses leading to her new prison sentence. Preparations for another election in Iran have been accompanied by warnings to candidates and threats to the media, and it seems that even the holding of debates among the six qualified candidates, the third of which was broadcast last Friday, has not attracted a wide audience. The six candidates for this election are Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Masoud Pezeshkian, Saeed Jalili, Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, and Alireza Zakani, who answered questions focused on cultural issues in their third debate. At the same time, the International PEN Association protested the new one-year prison sentence against this imprisoned human rights activist, describing it as indicative of the 'fragility' of the Islamic Republic. Romana Caccioli, the executive director of this association, stated on Saturday, June 22, that she calls for the end of the imprisonment of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, saying: 'The relentless harassment and torture by Iranian officials against Ms. Mohammadi over the past three years reveal the depth of the crisis of freedom of expression in the country and the cruel weapon of the judicial system to silence and punish critics.' Ms. Caccioli expressed serious concern about the 'deteriorating health condition' of this political prisoner, stating: 'Despite the relentless efforts of Iranian officials to silence her, Narges Mohammadi continues to defend human rights.' Narges Mohammadi, a human rights defender, journalist, writer, and deputy spokesperson for the Center for the Defenders of Human Rights in Iran, is the second Iranian after Shirin Ebadi to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Throughout her life, she has been arrested 13 times, convicted 9 times, and received a total of over 36 years in prison. Ms. Mohammadi has spent more than ten years in prison and 135 days in solitary confinement. Her current detention began in November 2021, following a ruling issued in May 2021 on charges of 'propaganda against the regime.'