Iqbal Suleiman is a social justice lawyer and former head of the law clinic for Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria and a research associate at Media Review Network Those who source information only from the mainstream media have been made to believe that there are no elections in Iran and the people do not choose their leaders. References are made to a country governed by an “authoritarian regime”, “dictatorship” and “mad mullahs”. Who can blame you if you believe that the Iranian government has no support from its people if your only point of reference is the mainstream Western media?
A referendum on creating an Islamic Republic was held in Iran on the 30thand 31st of March 1979, and 98.2% of eligible citizens voted in the referendum, with 99.3 percent voting in favour of an Islamic government. This demonstrates that the Islamic government at its very inception received overwhelming support from its citizens. The first presidential election was held in 1980 with a voter turnout of 63.6%.
In 1989 it was 72.7%. The high turnout in this election was after the passing of Imam Khomeini and the majority of Iranians again overwhelmingly expressed their support for the Islamic government after the leader of the revolution had passed. The last presidential election was in 2024 after the death of President Ebrahim Raisi.
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The voter turnout in this election runoff was 49.6%, apparently amongst the lowest voter turnouts since the Revolution. Reformist candidate Masood Pezeshkian ascended to the presidency with 16.3 million votes, whereas his rival, principalist Saeed Jalili obtained 13.5 million votes. Close to 30 million Iranians voted in the last elections.
The Iranian political system is a highly contested space. Pezeshkian is a reformist who seeks more engagement with the West and further relaxation of social laws, whereas Principlaists advocate for the continuation of revolutionary principles and defiance towards imperialism. The Iranian government is far from perfect.
It has its failings, but it is for the people of Iran alone to decide the form of government they want and who they want to elect to govern them. The allegation that the government lacks legitimacy is not rooted in facts because close to 50% of the eligible voters participated in the elections. Here we are talking about the last elections in 2024 with the lowest voter turnout of approximately 30 million people. Make no mistake, any war on Iran that results in regime change translates into American and Israeli bombs on the 30 million Iranian ballots.
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