By Anna Rita Canone
Today, June 18, will be the most controversial presidential election. The approximately 83 million Iranians, in fact, will have to choose the successor of Hassan Rohani. Of the 7 candidates, only 3 remained in contention: Abdolnasser Hemmati, moderate, plus Ebrahim Raisi and Mohsen Rezai.
President Maryam Rajavi and human rights activists have been pushing for a long boycott, the hashtag #Boycottiranshamelections is on Twitter. Five Iranian women’s organizations from different ethnic groups also joined the campaign (https://t.co/W8gaajrwn1?amp=1). Raisi, in fact, is accused of being responsible for the torture and massacre of Iranian political prisoners in 1988: he was a prosecutor who condemned people to death (https://arab.news/zv9ph).
Last June 8, in a long live streaming on Twitter organized by NCRI FAC – the National Council of the Iranian Resistance, they recounted their experiences witnesses or victims of the torture of Raisi (https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1LyxBdNRrEWGN).
Among other things, as Maryam Rajavi denounced in a Tweet on June 9, the clerical regime, to ensure its survival, did not give up the nuclear program.
The violence of the regime, anyway, does not cease even at the presidential elections: on 9 June Amnesty International denounced the torture of the brothers Vahid and Habib Afkari, on 11 June the Kurdish environmentalist Faranak Jamshidi was imprisoned and, on the same day, motocross champion Shahrzad Nazifi was sentenced to 8 years by the Tehran Revolutionary Tribunal, as denounced by the female section of NCRI.
On 11 June the political prisoner Sasan Niknafs, detained in prison despite his health conditions, died for lack of medical care, too.
Regardless of the result of the election, however, there will be the Free Iran World Summit on 10-12 July with live streaming.
Anna Rita Canone
