Mr. Rajavi reiterated: Despite the change in the balance of power , there is no possibility for reform in the Velayat-e Faqih regime. Keeping the internal situation in check would be impossible except through adventurism and exporting crisis.
Regarding the regime's astronomical lies about an 88% voter turn-out, the NCR President said: An assessment by the Resistance's Command Headquarters inside Iran on the state of voting stations in Tehran and 100 other cities shows that only 6.5 million people, i.e. 16% of the 39 million eligible voters, took part in the election farce.
Mr. Rajavi noted: Khamenei and Rafsanjani reached agreement to inflate the number of votes cast four to five-fold in a face-saving formula for the regime as a whole. This agreement, coupled with false claims of women and youth participation, were the ruling clerics' response to the support of the vast majority of Iranians for Resistance's President-elect Maryam Rajavi.
The NCR President added: The regime claims that more than four million voted in Tehran alone, although the total number of ballots distributed by the elections headquarters in the capital did not exceed 2.6 million. Multitudes of blank ballots were returned to the election headquarters. In another scheme, authorities reduced the number of voting stations from 3,000 to 2,000 in a bid to produce scenes of long lines of voters and crowded polling stations essentially for western television cameras.
Mr. Rajavi stated: If the turn-out was 88 percent, why does the regime fear testing its chances in a free presidential election under UN supervision, as the Resistance has repeatedly demanded!? Why did it have to deploy 270,000 of its suppressive forces to control voting stations around the country? And why did it have to eliminate 234 of the candidates all of whom were among the regime's retinue?
The NCR President said: The regime's dominant faction (Khamenei's clique) which ran the election show, was utterly caught off guard by the public's ubiquitous disdain and by profound dissatisfaction within the regime and suffered a humiliating defeat. Doubtless, what Khatami has gained was, more than anything else, a "vote of opposition to the government," a "vote of disdain," and a "protest vote" even from within the regime.
Mr. Rajavi stressed: For the people of Iran, there is no difference between the two candidates. Khatami is a low-ranking cleric who in 1980 became Majlis deputy from Ardakan [in the central Yazd province]. Some time later, at the behest of Khomeini, he led a group which occupied the premises of Kayhan Publishing House [publisher of the country's largest daily]. Khatami then took up the task of censoring the daily. In 1982, he was appointed Minister of "Islamic Guidance," a job he held for 10 years, playing a key role in censoring and disseminating false propaganda. He has also been involved in all of the regime's atrocities, the executions and the massacre of political prisoners.
As a leader of the "Line of the Imam" faction, Khatami advocated exporting terrorism and fundamentalism. He explicitly stated in the daily Ressalat on July 7, 1991: "Where do we look in drawing up 'the National Security Strategy of the Islamic Republic of Iran?' Do we look to preserve the integrity of our land, or do we look to expansion? Do we look to bast (expansionism) or to hefz (preservation)? We must definitely focus on expansionism...The Islamic Republic's survival depends on the support of a global Islamic force. The Islamic movement in Algeria is serious, and we can count on Sudan. New centers of power are taking shape in the Islamic world. Growing Islamic forces abound in the world, and we must truly depend on them."
The NCR President said: With that record, how did Khatami all of a sudden have a change of heart, remembering "human rights," "law and order" and "freedom of parties." He now faces the challenge to step back, even a single step, from executions, imprisonment, torture, and censorship. If this were to happen, the Iranian people would quickly settle their account with the mullahs. The Iranian Resistance welcomes even a whiff of freedom, as it welcomes any retreat by the mullahs. Such developments eventually lead to the overthrow of the entire regime and the coming to power of the democratic alternative, which enjoys the support of the vast majority of the people of Iran.
Mr. Rajavi stressed: The election outcome exposed the clerical regime's fragility to an extent hardly conceivable before. Despite the forecasts and his own stated desire, Khamenei failed to crown Nateq Nouri as president to "preserve the regime in its entirety."
The NCR President continued: Eight years after Khomeini's death, it is no longer possible to maintain the status quo and contain the trend of events as regards the Iranian Resistance. No one can deny that a new era has begun that will culminate in a final showdown between the Resistance and the regime.
Mr. Rajavi concluded: By a three to one margin, the balance of power within the clerical regime has turned against Khamenei's faction. The troika that now heads the regime will render it more feeble. In any turn of events, the first winners shall be the Iranian people's Resistance, and the sole democratic alternative, the National Council of Resistance.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Paris
May 26, 1997
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