Iran's Cyber-Police ‌Blocking Instagram Accounts For Election Boycott

Iran’s regime launched a high-intensity campaign to stop boycotts of the parliament and Assembly of Experts elections.

Tehran-born Ben Sabti, an expert on Iranian Jews from the Israeli National Security and Strategy Institute, told Iran International that there are reports from Tehran that the government "is pressuring the Jews to vote.” He said the regime is exploiting the Jews to promote the elections and “make propaganda for the election.”

Initial reports from Iran, as well as opinion surveys conducted from abroad, speak of the lowest ever turnout on Friday, as Iranians have become more disillusioned with the Islamic Republic and its highly controlled and manipulated elections.

Sabti said he does not recall such an organized campaign in the past. The Iranian Jewish community were provided buses to take members to a stadium to promote the election and had a “festival of joy” about the election. The Jewish community also notified its members that there are "five or six synagogues” where Jews can vote, according to Sabti.

Dr. Homayoun Sameyah, the Chair of the Tehran Jewish Association, who is also a member of Iran’s regime-controlled parliament, launched an attack against Israel.

According to a report in the Islamic Republic News Agency, Sameyah discussed the “crimes of the Zionist regime” on Tuesday. He noted that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini separated Zionism from the Jewish religion. Sameyeh said that Zionism is not only limited to Judaism, it also exists in Christianity (Christian Zionism). He also propagated a wild anti-Israel conspiracy theory advocated by Iran's rulers: "The ISIS terrorist group was created by Zionists.”

According to the authoritative website Jewish Virtual Library (JVL), “The Jews live under the status of dhimmi, with the restrictions imposed on religious minorities. Jewish leaders fear government reprisals if they draw attention to the official mistreatment of their community. Iran’s official government-controlled media often issue anti-Semitic propaganda.”

The JVL noted that “A prime example is the government’s publishing of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious Czarist forgery, in 1994 and 1999. Jews also suffer varying degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination, particularly in the areas of employment, education, and public accommodations.”

Prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there were as many as 100,000 Jews living in Iran. The majority fled Iran after Islamists seized power.

Iran’s regime has intensified its crackdown over the last five months on the country’s tiny Jewish community after the Hamas attack on Israel.

Iran International reported in October on rising pressure on Tehran’s Jewish community, which serves as an umbrella organization for the estimated 9,000 Jews, to bash Israel for its war against the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist organization. Hamas invaded Israel on October 7 and slaughtered 1,200 people. The Sunni terrorist movement Hamas kidnapped over 240 people.

In September, Iran International reported in connection with the one-year anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s murder, which coincided with the Jewish New Year on September 16, that Jewish community leaders warned Jews to stay off the streets during anticipated protests.

A Telegram posting from Iran’s Jewish community wrote “All worshipers are strongly requested to refrain from stopping and gathering in the streets for any reason during Rosh Hashanah and after performing religious duties in synagogues.”

In a statement, the Coordination Council of Teachers Associations in Iran announced its decision to abstain from participating in the vote.

The council cited concerns over the control of “all aspects of the economy, politics, culture, security, and judiciary by the subordinate branches of appointed institutions”.

It comes as a growing number of political, social, and cultural activists have also vowed to join the boycott, with over 275 people having already declared their intention to abstain from the March 1 elections for the parliament and the Assembly of Experts.

Prisoners of conscience who have been jailed for their opposition views have also declared they will not vote.

In response to the growing boycott, Mustafa Rostami, the head of the Office of the Supreme Leader's Representative in Universities, urged the public to take part in the elections.

He said on Thursday: "Those seeking to disintegrate Iran will receive a strong response through public participation in elections."

He added in an extraordinary outbust: "Opponents of participation in elections are those who support the killers of women and children in Gaza and do not value the people's votes."

The backdrop to the political climate includes widespread opposition among Iranian voters to the regime's foreign policy, particularly its support for Israel. The dissent is fuelled by dissatisfaction with domestic governance, disillusionment with the political system's lack of accountability, and disapproval of Iran's involvement in conflicts abroad.

Iran's political landscape is characterized by significant authoritarianism, with power concentrated in the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and unelected bodies like the Guardian Council. The lack of political competition and accountability further discourages participation in the electoral process.

It comes as the Islamic Republic has launched a renewed crackdown on citizens and dissidents advocating a boycott of the vote.

Iran’s parliamentary and the Assembly of Experts elections will be held on March 1. On Wednesday, Mohammad Hossein Poursani, Deputy Minister of Education, announced the recruitment of students as “representatives of the governor” in the voting.

Government officials had previously repeatedly warned about the presence of students in cyberspace, but as the election nears they seem to be taking a softer approach at least temporarily.

Praising youngsters’ technological awareness, Poursani said: “Students today are those of cyberspace, Artificial intelligence (AI) and the Metaverse, and they live in an atmosphere maybe several years ahead of us.”

He added that the Shad educational application, which is used by millions of school students across Iran to access educational materials, has been employed for election campaigns.

According to the latest data, more than 16 million students are enrolled in the current school year.

The regime has tried to use students to reach out to their families and neighbors in a bid to bring them to the polls.

In his Wednesday speech for the youth voting for the first time, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged them to encourage their classmates, parents, friends and relatives to participate in the elections.

Some government institutions, including the University of Tabriz, have vowed to give presents to the first-time voters.

Soldiers Who Vote Will Be Granted Incentive Leave

Meanwhile, military authorities in Iran have tried to capitalize on soldiers and officers in order to increase the voter turnout.

Iran's infamous police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said that the soldiers serving in the police force will be granted four days of incentive leave in exchange for participating in the elections.

As the election security is ensured, it is the “duty” of the citizens to vote, Radan went on to say.

Threatening And Arresting Dissidents

While political activists, opposition parties and large sections of the public have pledged to boycott the elections, Iran’s security and intelligence institutions have mounted their pressure to prevent boycott campaigns.

According to West Azarbaijan police force commander Rahim Jahanbakhsh, 50 political dissidents in the province posting calls online for a boycott of upcoming elections were arrested.

Any calls to boycott the elections will be dealt with, he threatened.

Some activists also reported that they received threatening text messages from Iran’s judiciary over launching or supporting boycott campaigns on their social media pages.

Manipulation Of The Voting Process

Some government efforts to engineer elections have focused on the voting process.

Iran’s Election Office has announced that the ballots for both parliamentary and the Assembly of Experts elections are given to the voters in one sheet. This means that those who choose to vote in one election will necessarily have to participate in another as well.

Unlike the previous elections, citizens will not have to carry their birth certificates to vote. According to the regime officials, those eligible to vote can participate in the elections only by showing their passports, national identifications or military service cards.

Moreover, stamping the birth certificate has been removed from the voting process.

A Statistical Leap In Government-Backed Polls

Polls conducted or reported by government agencies indicate a sharp increase in voter turnout.

Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA), affiliated with the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, reported a projection of 50% turnout.

This is while ISPA had said two months ago that only 28% of the Iranians were expected to vote.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (Seda va Sima), whose head is appointed by the Supreme Leader, announced 70% of the electorate will participate in the elections.

These statistics counter the results of independent polls. A telephone poll conducted from abroad by Washington-based Stasis Consulting revealed that turnout in Iran’s upcoming parliamentary elections is set to hit a new record low of just 34 percent.

The projection is 9% down on the last elections four years ago, already the lowest turnout at the time.

"I suspect that a great number of Iranians have no expectation that those elections will be free and fair," the state department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

This will be the first election after the widespread 2022 protests in Iran, which deepened and widened the rupture between the regime and ordinary Iranians. There’s very little appetite for participation in what many people consider an "official show." The turnout will likely be low, especially in major cities and urban areas.

"As you probably already know, thousands of candidates were already disqualified in an opaque process,” Miller said, “The world has long known that Iran's political system features undemocratic and non-transparent administrative, judicial and electoral systems.”

Candidates are heavily vetted before they can stand for election. The 12-member Guardian Council, whose members are either appointed or suggested by the leader Ali Khamenei, bars anyone that it thinks may not be fully loyal to the core of the regime.

The vetting process seems to be stricter than ever, leaving the voters with no real choice. But many Iranians seem to not care even about the vetting, having lost hope in the system’s willingness or capacity to change through elections.

Over its past few terms, the Iranian parliament (aka Majles) has become more and more subservient to the two real sources of authority in the Islamic Republic: the Leader and the Revolutionary Guards –who make the key decisions that concern the US and its allies.

Most observers, including US officials, seem to have realized that the parliament is more or less irrelevant to the key decisions.

Activists including Sara Jahani, Hooman Taheri, Yasamin Hashdari were charged with offences including "anti-establishment propaganda" and "membership in an illegal group".

They faced proceedings under Judge Mehdi Rasekhi in a revolutionary court in the northern city of Rasht on Thursday

The defendants were represented by their lawyers Mustafa Nili, Ramin Safarnia, and Mohammad Ali Kamfirouzi.

Sources reported that at the conclusion of the court session, the judge announced that the trial had ended, and the activists would await the verdict.

The women were detained by security institutions of the Islamic Republic in cities including Rasht, Fooman, Anzali, and Lahijan on August 16. The Intelligence Office of Gilan Province confirmed their arrest, alleging their involvement with "foreign elements" and planning to incite unrest and sabotage on the anniversary of the 2022 uprising against regime in Gilan and Kordestan.

After spending approximately two months in custody, the activists were temporarily released from Lakan Prison in Rasht upon posting bail.

The Islamic Republic has faced criticism for its consistent detention and imprisonment of civil and political activists. The nationwide uprising against the Islamic Republic since September 2022 has seen intensified suppression of dissenting voices by the government, with activists continuing to face harassment and imprisonment.