The Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution, a prominent reformist organization, has joined the line-up of such groups boycotting the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The group is currently banned within Iran, but a statement from the branch that is based abroad says: “as a part of the reformist and Green Movement of Iran, [we] will endorse no candidates in these sham quasi-elections and will not vote for any candidates either.”
The statement urges reformist forces “not to acquiesce to the psychological pressures and threats of the rulers, who have only used the language of force and fraud with the people.”
Their list of grievances includes the house arrest of opposition leaders MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the incarceration of hundreds of protesters, the banning of the top reformist parties, the blocking of reformist websites and newspapers, the tense security-military atmosphere of the country and the establishment’s refusal to heed the advice of senior reformists such as former president Mohmmad Khatami and the head of the Expediency Council, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. It says these are all signs that the parliamentary elections are “not a real election but an engineered sham with results that have already been determined to establish a secure Parliament.”
In recent weeks, several reformist organizations and figures have joined the call for an election boycott.
The reformists had set out conditions to be met before they would join the political race: the release of all political prisoners, freedom of political activity and transparent elections. Iran’s parliamentary elections are slated for March.
