More than 270 Iranian civil and political activists issued a statement confirming their boycott of the legislative elections, scheduled for Friday, accusing the authorities of "engineering" and "staging" the polls.
Iran’s upcoming elections are the first since the outbreak of the protests that shook the country at the end of 2022, following the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini, days after the morality police arrested her.
Experts expect the voter turnout to be low, reaching its lowest level since the establishment of Iran in 1979.
The activists' statement, including former officials and representatives, stated that the elections "reached a more deplorable situation, even compared to the previous elections."
Calls to boycott the elections increased after the Guardian Council rejected the requests of prominent reformist candidates.
The "deadlock of reforms" points to a deepening crisis within the country's political landscape, added the statement.
It noted that public participation in the elections declined sharply, and most parties of the reformist movement withdrew from the process.
The statement pointed out that voting is one of the basic rights and a source of legitimacy for any democratic system, stressing that the elections lack objectivity.
"The failed politics of participation and presence in the elections, in any case, and at any cost, has never succeeded, as evidenced by repeated trials and bitter historical experiences in recent decades," read the statement.
"Without a genuine revival of the electoral institution, real participation and presence will not occur," added the statement.
Emphasizing the dire state of Iran's current electoral institution, the activists outlined a series of prerequisites for holding genuine, fair, and healthy elections.
They indicated that since those conditions aren't present in the upcoming elections, they "deem it necessary not to participate”, describing them as “engineered against the public's sovereignty”.
