In Tehran, Friday, June 18, presidential election day, two parts of the electorate did not face each other. Until the end of the day, one mobilized when the other preferred to stay at home.
If in the conservative strongholds, voters thronged the mosques in a loud but disciplined hubbub, in a stark contrast, only the echo of rare footsteps echoed in the empty classrooms of the schools.
In Iran, where people vote in the office of their choice without territorial constraints, supporters of reformers traditionally prefer to vote in schools, shunning religious shrines, which are favored by conservatives. And until late afternoon on Friday, from south to north of the Iranian capital, mosques were a bit crowded when schools remained hopelessly empty.
In the popular district of Khorasan, in the south of Tehran, we vote since 7 am in the enclosure of the Lorzadeh mosque, a building of the XIVe century with a minaret richly decorated with ceramics in shades of blue and bluish green.
“Those who abstain are traitors”
Wearing a white turban and wearing the qaba members of the clergy, Hamid Rassayi, a former rapporteur of the ultraconservative faction in Parliament, now a candidate for municipal elections – they are held at the same time as the presidential election – awaits their turn, covering the crowd with a satisfied look. “Our country is a popular country, our regime is a popular regime. The active participation of the people in the elections is like the morning dew on the plants! “, he exclaims. “Iran has enemies, like France, who don’t want our regime to be popular. People’s participation is our response, adds the one, who unsurprisingly, is about to vote for Ebrahim Raïssi. [Le président sortant Hassan] Rohani had his gaze fixed on the West, whose assent he sought to resolve the country’s problems. Mr. Raïssi has his eyes focused on his people. “
In the line reserved for voters, where the black chador is worn evenly, the tone can be even harsher: “Those who abstain are traitors. It is an unforgivable mistake to leave the fate of the country to foreigners. We hope that Mr. Raïssi will fill the eight years of the reforming government of Rohani ”, explains Somayeh. “We must participate massively in the elections because we owe it to our martyrs and our Supreme Leader. We must show all the countries of the world which thought that the Iranian people were going to abstain that there is a mad world ”, Soheila abounds.
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