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.



Gunfire Breaks up Congo Rebel Leader’s Rally in Bukavu, Residents Say 

A member of the M23 movement stands guard as people board a truck during an enrollment of civilians, police officers, and former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) who allegedly decided to join the M23 movement voluntarily in Goma on February 23, 2025. (AFP)
A member of the M23 movement stands guard as people board a truck during an enrollment of civilians, police officers, and former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) who allegedly decided to join the M23 movement voluntarily in Goma on February 23, 2025. (AFP)
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Gunfire Breaks up Congo Rebel Leader’s Rally in Bukavu, Residents Say 

A member of the M23 movement stands guard as people board a truck during an enrollment of civilians, police officers, and former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) who allegedly decided to join the M23 movement voluntarily in Goma on February 23, 2025. (AFP)
A member of the M23 movement stands guard as people board a truck during an enrollment of civilians, police officers, and former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) who allegedly decided to join the M23 movement voluntarily in Goma on February 23, 2025. (AFP)

Crowds fled as gunfire rang out at a rally held by the leader of the M23 rebel group, Corneille Nangaa, in Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern city of Bukavu on Thursday, residents said.

There was no immediate information on who was shooting, or whether there were any deaths or injuries at the event organized by the force that has battled Congo's army and seized swathes of territory in the east since the beginning of the year.

Congo, the United Nations and Western powers say neighboring Rwanda is backing the M23 group - accusations Rwanda denies. The rebel advance has stirred fears of a regional war that could draw in Congo's neighbors.

It was Nangaa's first public appearance in eastern Congo's second largest city since his forces seized control of it nearly two weeks ago.

M23 has been trying to demonstrate that it can restore order in the territory it has captured from Congo's army, and has re-opened ports and schools.

This M23 advance is the gravest escalation in more than a decade of the long-running conflict in eastern Congo, rooted in the spillover of Rwanda's 1994 genocide into Congo and the struggle for control of Congo's vast minerals resources.

Rwanda has said it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting with the Congolese military.