Raisi: Active Participation in Elections Creates a Strong Iran

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi attended an event in Tehran (Iranian Presidency)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi urged Iranian citizens on Friday to make a "correct and informed" choice to create a "strong parliament" amid fears of record reluctance to participate in the upcoming legislative elections.
Iranian elections are held simultaneously with the selection of members of the Assembly of Experts, responsible for determining the Supreme Leader's tasks and place of residence.
A few days ago, Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei made a new appeal to increase the participation rate in the vote scheduled for next March.
Raisi spoke through a video conference on Friday during the opening of 200 nationwide radio and television election campaign channels.
The Mehr government agency quoted Raisi as saying, "All capacities must be used to make a correct and informed choice to create a strong parliament."
Raisi stressed that the participation of all people is effective for the elections, calling for using all capabilities as a "duty."
The new television channels are supposed to cover electoral districts throughout the country and allocate hours of broadcast for the candidates, according to the head of the Radio and Television Corporation in Iran (IRIB), Peyman Jabali.
However, there is a widespread exclusion of candidates, including former President Hassan Rouhani.
Last month, without giving reasons, the Guardian Council did not approve Rouhani's candidacy for a new term in the Leadership Council of Experts.
According to Agence France-Presse, the complex process of selecting the final candidates has come a long way after the Guardian Council rejected a third of the 24,982 nominees.
The multiple calls for "active participation" in the elections reflect concern over reluctance to participate in the first electoral vote since the massive wave of protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in August 2022.
The Iranian authorities often cited the expansion of the support base for the regime with widespread participation in the elections, but the last poll in 2021 witnessed a record decline in the number of voters.
Iranian officials fear a repeat of the scenario of the last elections held in 2020, which witnessed limited competition between conservatives and hard-line conservatives after the exclusion of reformists and moderates.
Raisi confirmed earlier that his government does not have "any candidate" for the parliamentary elections but is "only trying to encourage increased participation."
Weeks before the voting date, the tone of "warning against the enemy" escalated to dominate political and religious discourse in Iran.
Tehran's Friday prayers preacher Ali Akbari said last month that the enemy is taking measures to ensure the failure of elections in Iran, urging strong participation in the vote.
Tasnim Agency, affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), quoted Akbari as saying that the enemies want to prevent the people from participating in the elections by waging "psychological warfare" and despairing them.
They also want to distort security and cast doubt on the validity of the elections, said Akbari.