Since the last elections, Iran has been badly affected by international sanctions that have led to an economic crisis. It has also been rocked by widespread protests and drawn into escalating regional tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.
More than 61 million people out of Iran’s 85-million population are eligible to vote for members of parliament as well as the clerics of the Assembly of Experts, the body in charge of selecting Iran’s supreme leader.
A low turnout is expected, however, after a state TV poll found more than half of respondents were indifferent about the elections.
The country’s last parliamentary elections in 2020 had a voter turnout of 42.57 percent — the lowest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appealed for a strong turnout.
“It is important to show the world that the nation is mobilised,” said Khamenei on Wednesday on the last day of campaigning.
“The enemies of Iran want to see if the people are present,” he said, adding that otherwise “they will threaten your security in one way or another”.
Those watching included the United States, “most of the Europeans, evil Zionists, capitalists and big companies”, he said.
Khamenei said the United States and Israel, which “carefully” follow Iran’s issues, “are afraid of the people’s participation in the elections”.
The head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami, said on Thursday that “every vote is like a missile that is fired into the heart of our strongest enemies”.
“If our people want to participate in a powerful political battle like in the past and overcome the enemies, they should come to the stage and vote.”
The IRGC, the ideological defenders of the Islamic republic, noted that “strong participation” would discourage “foreign interventions”.
Iran considers the United States, its Western allies and Israel “enemies” of the state and accuses them of seeking to intervene in its internal affairs.