Mehdi Karroubi, the Iranian opposition leader who has been under house arrest since 2011 for triggering protests with allegations of vote fraud along with MirHosein Mousavi, has now asked to get a ballot box at his home in order to cast his vote in the parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections.
Mohammad Taghi Karroubi, the son of the opposition leader, wrote an Instagram message on Wednesday February 24, saying his father has decided to promote the republic aspect of the system by demanding his right to vote.
Mehdi Karroubi has been under house arrest since February of 2010 without any charges being laid against him or any chance to defend himself.
Releasing the opposition leaders under house arrest has become a taboo in the Islamic Republic establishment, and a dissident cleric, Ayatollah Mahmoud Amjad, has issued a call to the public urging them to vote for candidates who consider ending the house arrests as a priority.
Amjad had registered to run in the Assembly of Experts elections but he was disqualified by the Guardian Council. Amjad is known for his sermons that condemned government violence against election protesters in 2009, which eventually got him expelled from his mosque.
Hardliner Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, has been quoted as saying that they have disqualified anyone who was in any way connected with the 2009 election protests, which the establishment refers to as “sedition”.
The majority of reformist candidates in the upcoming elections were disqualified by the council.
