Parliamentary Elections Results Show Iranians’ Massive Support for Supreme Leader

The Iranian Interior Minister announced that according to the final results of the Friday Parliamentary polls in the country, 64% of eligible voters have participated in the elections, an unprecedented level of public turnout in legislative polls in the last decade which shows Iranians’ strong support for the Islamic Establishment and The Leader of Islamic Ummah and Oppressed People Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei.

According to the final results announced by Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, around 31million ballot papers have been cast in boxes in the 9th parliamentary elections throughout the country on Friday, meaning that 64% of the 48 million eligible voters in the country have participated in the elections.

The figure shows also a 13% increase in public turnout compared with the eighth and seventh parliamentary elections in Iran. Public turnout in both the seventh and eighth rounds of parliamentary elections stood at 51.15% and 51%, respectively.

The turnout was so high on Friday that the Interior Ministry was made to extend the deadline four times. Polling was really heavy since 8 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) on Friday and in many polling stations large numbers of the people had queued to be the first to cast their vote in the ballot box even three hours before polling centers opened.

The foreign journalists were astounded after they witnessed large crowds of people queuing at the polling stations even hours before voting officially started.

Analysts say Iranians’ massive participation in the Friday elections had a clear message for the West. Political observers, even those in the West, believe that Iranians gave a crushing response to the US war rhetoric through their massive participation in the Friday elections.

The level of Iranians’ public participation in the Friday polls – the first nationwide elections after the 2009 unrests in Tehran – also showed people’s strong opposition to the seditionist moves started and led by the then presidential candidates, Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, after their defeat in the June 12, 2009 presidential election in Iran.

After official announcement of election results on June 13, 2009 supporters of Ahmadinejad’s main rival Mir Hossein Moussavi – who rejected the results – took to the streets of Tehran and other cities for several days.

In reply millions of Iranian people staged a strong presence and ended weeklong demonstrations and unrests in the capital.

Analysts believe that the high public turnout in the Friday March 2 legislative polls at a time of heightened sanctions against Iran displayed the Iranian people’s all-out support for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei against not just the opposition, but also the foreign enemies.

After casting his vote in the ballot box, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei underlined the importance of high turnout in the ninth parliamentary elections for Iran’s security and immunity.

“The more enthusiastic and motivated people come (to the voting stations), the better and more fruitful it (their participation) will be for the country’s future and reputation and for maintaining security and immunity,” Ayatollah Khamenei said after casting his vote in Tehran in the early hours of Friday morning.

He also stressed the sensitiveness of the ninth parliamentary vote, and said, “Since there are many hues and cries and words of threat against the Iranian nation, the Iranian nation is placed in a more sensitive position in this round (of elections) and it can speak better and this speaking is done through action.”

Ayatollah Khamenei had earlier stressed that the Iranian nation will display its strong will and determination to the enemies by its high turnout in the parliamentary elections on Friday.

“The Iranian nation will give a slap stronger than the February 11 (popular rallies on the anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran) across the face of the arrogant powers and will display its strong will and determination to the enemies,” Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing a large number of Iranian people in Tehran late February.

He described the Friday parliamentary elections as more sensitive than the previous polls held in the country, and said, “The arrogant powers’ front should know that it can do nothing to the (Iranian) nation.”