No Choice but to Take Part in the Election

What I would like to say to the reformists and those who intend to boycott the election is that you are making a mistake and you must participate in the election.

My main reason for taking part in this election is that in order to make changes and progress and achieve what we want, we have no other choice but to participate.

I, Sadegh Zibakalam, pursue goals such as freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of thought, and the liberation of political prisoners and the only way for me to achieve these objectives is to participate in the election and work within the system and I see no other way to reach these goals.

We have no choice but to work within the system and reform it millimeter by millimeter and step by step.

Non-participation in the election does not change anything. In the ninth parliamentary elections, many of the reformists did not participate. Did anything change? No, nothing changed.

There are about 8 million people who live in Tehran and who are eligible to vote. This is while representatives from Tehran such as Mr. Roohollah Hosseinian, Rasaei, Koochakzadeh and Mrs. Fatemeh Alya entered the parliament with only 250,000 to 300,000 votes.

This means that even if only 10% of the eligible voters had voted for them, they would have gained 800,000 votes, and if 5% of the eligible voters had voted, they would have gained about 400,000 votes.

In other words, not even 5% of those eligible to vote in Tehran voted for these people; but they are considered as representatives of Tehran and when Mr. Hosseinian, Rasaei, and Koochakzadeh talk on behalf of the people, nobody tells them that they are representing only 3% of the people, because they are considered as the representatives of the people of Tehran.

The same is true for the presidential election. If the reformists do not participate in the election, it would not be improbable for Mr. Haddad Adel or Mr. Jalili to become the president with only 5 million votes and no one could tell them that they are not legally Iran’s president because only 10% of the voters voted for them.

Therefore, we have no choice but to participate in this election in order to advance our democratic and freedom-seeking demands from within the system.