Results of the Second Round of Parliamentary Elections Announced; Unofficial Reports Indicate 'Very Low' Participation in Tehran

The Iranian Ministry of Interior announced the results of the second round of the twelfth parliamentary elections, stating that in the Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat, Pardis, and Islamshahr electoral district, only 552,000 valid votes were cast. Bijan Nobaveh, a member of the Stability Front, was introduced as the first candidate from Tehran with 271,094 votes. Other elected candidates in this district include Mohammad Saraj, Abolfazl Zohrevand, Hossein Samasami, Zahra Lajvardi, Ahmad Nadri, Ebrahim Azizi, Somayeh Rafiei, Peyman Falsafi, Abolghasem Jarareh, Morteza Mahmoudi, Mojtaba Rahmandoust, Abdolhossein Rouh-al-Amini, Mojtaba Zarei, Zeinab Ghaesari, and Alireza Salimi. Thus, the majority of candidates supporting President Ebrahim Raisi from the Tehran electoral district entered the parliament. While domestic news agencies all claimed a 'glorious participation' and the creation of a 'epic' in the second round of the parliamentary elections, the Farhikhtegan newspaper reported on Saturday, May 22, based on unofficial statistics, that the participation rate in the important Tehran electoral district was only 'eight percent'. The newspaper wrote: 'The second round of all elections, especially in parliament, is usually held with less enthusiasm, but the pressure of this election was less than before due to various factors.' Farhikhtegan did not specify these 'various factors' and only referred to the 'noteworthy votes' of the representatives who reached the Majlis, stating: 'Regardless of the final composition, the most important question facing Iranian politicians is the reasons behind the results obtained from the perspective of the overall elections.' Unofficial reports indicate that more than 92 percent of Tehran citizens turned away from participating in the second round of the parliamentary elections. In the first round of the twelfth parliamentary elections, held on March 2 of last year, only 41 percent of eligible individuals participated, marking the lowest participation rate in the history of the Islamic Republic's elections. This figure was officially reported as only 26 percent in Tehran. Following the widespread protests in recent years in Iran, especially after the extensive protests triggered by the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini in the custody of the morality police, participation in various elections in Iran has seen a significant downward trend. Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, repeatedly called for increased public participation before the first round of the twelfth parliamentary elections, but did not refer to the recent years' developments, violence, crackdowns, and widespread arrests. The decrease in participation in this election was so significant that even the reformist forces, who usually participated in elections under any circumstances, abstained from participation. Simultaneously, a day before the second round of the parliamentary elections, an audio file of Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran, was released, related to one of his meetings with reformists before the first round of the parliamentary elections in March, in which he explicitly talks about abstaining from participating in the elections. Mr. Khatami acknowledges that this movement has always 'begged and pleaded' for two or three seats in parliament, but ultimately concluded that it should 'stand with the people.' On Friday, May 21, elections were held among 90 candidates for the representation of parliament to determine the fate of the remaining 45 seats out of 290 in the Islamic Consultative Assembly. In the Tehran electoral district, out of one million 569 thousand 857 votes in the first round of elections, 14 individuals directly entered the parliament, and 32 others advanced to the second round to determine the fate of the remaining 16 seats in this district. The electoral districts of Tabriz, Shahrestan, Miyaneh, Parsabad, Semiram, Lanjan, Karaj, Tehran, Varamin, Birjand, Mashhad, Abadan, Ramhormoz, Khodabandeh, Zanjan, Shiraz, Marvdasht, Khorramabad, Qaemshahr, Malayer, Kermanshah, and Gonbad Kavus were the 22 electoral districts that went to the second round of elections.