Iran Urges Voters to Take Part in Friday's Presidential Election

Posters of Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi are seen in Tehran on June 14, 2021. (AFP)
Posters of Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi are seen in Tehran on June 14, 2021. (AFP)
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Iran Urges Voters to Take Part in Friday's Presidential Election

Posters of Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi are seen in Tehran on June 14, 2021. (AFP)
Posters of Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi are seen in Tehran on June 14, 2021. (AFP)

Iran's president appealed to voters to set aside their grievances and take part in a presidential election on Friday that record numbers of people are expected to boycott due to economic hardship and frustration with hardline rule.

Hardline judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi and moderate former Central Bank governor Abdolnasser Hemmati are the main contenders after the hardline Guardian Council disqualified several prominent candidates from running and others quit.

President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate, urged Iranians on Thursday, as campaigning ended, not to let the “shortcomings of an institution or a group” keep them from voting, an apparent reference to the Guardian Council.

"For the time being, let's not think about grievances tomorrow," Rouhani said in televised remarks.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has already urged people to turn out in large numbers, saying that would help avert foreign pressures on Tehran.

Official opinion polls suggest turnout could be as low as 41%, significantly lower than in past elections.

In addition to anger over the disqualification of prominent moderates, grievances include economic hardship exacerbated by US sanctions as well as official corruption, mismanagement, and a crackdown on protests in 2019 triggered by rising fuel prices.

The accidental shooting down of a Ukrainian plane in Iran in January last year which killed 176 also undermined public trust.

“Voting would be an insult to my intelligence,” 55-year-old Fatemeh said, declining to give her second name for fear of reprisals. “Raisi has already been selected by the government regardless who we vote for.”

Prominent dissidents inside and outside the country have called on fellow Iranians to snub the election, including exiled former crown prince Reza Pahlavi and opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, under house arrest since 2011.

On the other hand, many leading reformists have rallied behind Hemmati, including former President Mohammad Khatami, arguing that a massive boycott would guarantee a Raisi win.

Under the Iranian Constitution, the supreme leader, elected for life and responsible for choosing six of the 12-member Guardian Council, holds most of the powers of the state.

Polling stations open at 7 a.m. local time and close at 2 am on Saturday. The interior minister told state TV that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, voting will take place outside at 67,000 sites across the country, with social distancing and the donning of face masks. Voters are asked to bring their own pens.



China Holds ‘Shooting’ Drills off Taiwan’s Coast, Vows ‘Reunification’ Push 

A Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet prepares to land at an Air Force base in Hsinchu on December 10, 2024. (AFP)
A Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet prepares to land at an Air Force base in Hsinchu on December 10, 2024. (AFP)
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China Holds ‘Shooting’ Drills off Taiwan’s Coast, Vows ‘Reunification’ Push 

A Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet prepares to land at an Air Force base in Hsinchu on December 10, 2024. (AFP)
A Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet prepares to land at an Air Force base in Hsinchu on December 10, 2024. (AFP)

China's military held "shooting training" on Wednesday off Taiwan's southwest coast in a move Taipei described as provocative and dangerous, while a senior Chinese leader vowed unswerving efforts to bring the island under Beijing's control.

Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has repeatedly complained of Chinese military activities, including several rounds of full-scale war games during the past three years.

Shortly before 9 a.m. (0100GMT), Taiwan's defense ministry said in a statement, it had detected 32 Chinese military aircraft carrying out a "joint combat readiness drill" with Chinese warships in the Taiwan Strait area.

"During this period it even blatantly violated international practice by setting up a drills area in waters about 40 nautical miles (74 km) off the coast ... without prior warning, claiming that it would carry out 'shooting training'," the ministry added.

Taiwan's major southwestern population centers of Kaohsiung and Pingtung are both home to important naval and air bases. Kaohsiung is also home to Taiwan's largest port, a busy hub for global shipping.

The exercises endanger the safety of international flights and shipping and are a "blatant provocation" to regional peace and stability, the ministry said, adding that it had dispatched its own forces to keep watch.

There was no immediate confirmation from China that it was carrying out new drills around Taiwan and its defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

China's other recent military activity in the region, such as that off Australia's coast, are "proof that China is the only, and the greatest, threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific," Taiwan's ministry said.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its rule, and has denounced both President Lai Ching-te, who took office last year, as a "separatist", and the United States for its support for Taiwan.

Earlier on Wednesday, China's official Xinhua news agency said the ruling Communist Party's fourth ranked leader, Wang Huning, had called this week for greater effort in the cause of Chinese "reunification".

China must "firmly grasp the right to dominate and take the initiative in cross-strait relations, and unswervingly push forward the cause of reunification of the motherland", it quoted Wang as telling an annual meeting on work related to Taiwan.

Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future.

SEVERED UNDERSEA CABLES

Taiwan and China have traded barbs also traded barbs this week over the severing of an undersea communications cable off the island's southwest coast.

Taiwan on Tuesday detained a Chinese-linked cargo ship, flagged in Togo, suspected of involvement, though China's government said Taiwan was "manipulating" possible Chinese involvement, saying the island was casting aspersions before the facts were clear.

Before being detained by Taiwan's coast guard, the Chinese-crewed Hong Tai 58 was already on a monitoring list of 52 China-linked vessels that Taiwan security agencies suspect pose a threat to cables because of their past activities near Taiwan, two Taiwan officials familiar with the matter told Reuters.

This is the fifth case of sea cable malfunctions this year for Taiwan. It reported three such cases in 2024 and 2023.

Taiwan has pointed to similarities between what it has experienced and damage to undersea cables in the Baltic Sea after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.