15 Jun 2021
A dissident activist in Tehran told Breitbart News in an interview Monday that a mass boycott of Iran’s upcoming presidential election is critical to show the world that the Iranian people reject “more repression and terrorism at any cost” at the hands of the Supreme Leader-approved candidates.
Iran is an Islamist dictatorship with no meaningful civilian participation in government. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei regularly holds elections for “president,” a position subservient to him, and Khamenei’s Guardian Council chooses who appears on the ballot. The Council rejected 592 candidates this year, leaving a slate of seven men all representing the “hardline” wing of Iranian politics. “Frontrunner” Ebrahim Raisi, often cited as a potential successor to Khamenei, was responsible for the execution of as many as 30,000 dissidents at former Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini’s behest in 1988.