Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan
11 June 2001

On Friday, 8 June 2001, the presidential election in Iran was conducted. The day after, on
Saturday, 9 June 2001, the results were announced, and as it had been predicted, Mr.
Khatami won a landslide majority in this election. As you all know, the majority of
opposition groups, and the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan among them, and most of
the patriotic personalities at home and in diaspora had asked the electorate to refrain from
going to the polls and boycotting the election.

The regime’s propaganda apparatus as ususal conducted excessive self-praising around this
election, and considered people’s participation as “unparalleled” and a “sign of islamic
nation’s keen devotion to divine just system”.  Along with them too, some political analysts
assessed the results of this election as a “referendum on reform”, something that those known
as reformists had claimed before. But, if we analyse the issue realisticaly that the announced
results of the eighth presidential election proved many of the predictions of those who had
boycotted the election, for example:

-Despite the fact that the people who were eligible to vote had increased by another 7 milion
in comparsion to the last presidential election, the turn-out according to regime’s statistics
were 1 million less than the previous presidential election. In other words, 14 million people
who were eligible to vote refrained from going to the polls. This is clearly an indication of a
huge segment of Iranian populations’ disappointment with the election, and over all their
disappointment in the fact that their needs and demands are unfulfillable within Islamic
Republic.

-As it was expected, Mr. Khatami emerged victorious twice in a row in these elections, and
appearently he has obtained even a higher percentage of votes this time. Regardless of the
accuracy of the results and figures, there is no doubt that this time Khatami was the favourite
candidate for both sides of the power structure, and he won the election as a result of both
sides combined votes. Unsurprisingly, the system’s leader, (according to some information
obtained before the election) very threateningly forced Khatami to re-candidate himself for
presidency, as well as urged his supporters as much as he was capable to vote for him. These
are all natural; up to now, no one has served to preserve the totality of the system, and as
well as portray a colouful image of the regime in international stage better than Khatami.

-Something more important was these statistics that were predictable for most analysts before
the election. Although the authorities had no choice but to announce the turn-out less than
the previous election, but in the day of election, the regime’s propaganda machinary
pretended that the turn-out had been unparrarelled in the history of the Islamic Republic.
Aside from this, they had kept the polling stations fewer, so more voters would vote to cast
their ballot; and three times, appearently some constituencies had run out of ballot. This left
many people in the line-ups, so they extended the voting hours to pretend that the turn out
had been unexpected. Who can believe that when among the 42 million eligible voters only
28 million bother to vote, not enough ballots would be printed or the polling stations would
not receive enough ballots.

We, as part of our responsibility were observing the election process in many Kurdish cities,
and in centre, and some major cities in other parts of Iran by our friends, sympathizers, and
members. In most of the constituencies, the reality had been much different than what had
been reported by the regime’s propaganda centres. But, apparently, Islamic Republic needs
victory and public interest, but practically such a dream has not yet come true; therefore,
they have to make a play out of such a victory by increasing the figures, media tricks and
other avenues to decieve public opinion in Iran and in international stage.

In many Kurdish cities, the turn-out was much lower than what was officially reported.
Without considering the fact that those who support the regime comprised a small segment
of the voters who went to the polls, and the rest either because of later consequences of legal
inquiries, loss of subsidies, employment, and admission into public services, the figures that
were reported for Kurdistan show that the number of people who voted comparing to the
numbers eligible has been one-third, even though the turn-out has been different from region
to region.

We, on our behalf salute the bravery and awakedness of the people in Kurdistan and other
parts of the country, and present our appreciations that once again they placed their trust in
our Party, and also showed their high level of political awareness. We believe, as a few years
after the regime’s referendum, the Kurdish people and the political groups’ stance in regards
to boycotting the referendum remained effective, this time, it will be proven even sooner that
true power in Iran rests in the hands of “absolute juriscouncil” and fundamentals, and the
election of this and that will not change the essential question.

Of course, we hope that such predictions will not come true, and Mr. Khatami and the
so-called reformist camp will be better able to do much more to solve the country’s
economic, political, social, and cultural problems, and more importantly to accommodate the
rights and demands of the oppressed minorities in Iran. But, it can be expected that Khatami
will show himself even less decisive and able in the second term of his presidency,
particularly, because this is his last term in office, and he does not need to attract the
electorate and the public opinion.

One more time, we reiterate our belief in the principle that deep change in the benefit of
freedom, democracy, social justice, and human rights in the context of current Iranian system
is impossible, and we will be delighted if such analysis are contrary.
********************
The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com