Polls predict low voter turnout over Iranian regime’s efforts to engineer result

Iran’s hardline rulers are battling to ensure not only their preferred candidate, the head of the judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, wins Saturday’s presidential election, but also that the electoral system that puts him into power retains a veneer of credibility with ordinary Iranians.

Polls are predicting a turnout as low as 40%, down from the previous 73% in 2017, partly because the Iranian regime has gone further than ever to engineer the result. Even so the regime is nervous since the compressed three-week campaign has, on at least three previous occasions, led to sudden late mood swings.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei concedes that some candidates disqualified from 18 June vote were unfairly treated

Iran’s supreme leader has said that some candidates rejected from this month’s presidential election had been “wronged” and unfairly smeared, but the country’s powerful Guardian Council said the decision to ban them would not be reversed.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on Iran’s affairs, last month endorsed the watchdog’s rejection of several prominent candidates – including former parliament speaker Ali Larijani – for the 18 June vote.