As this statement was being issued, reports from dozens of voting stations in Tehran and Isfahan indicated that very few people cast their ballots. Some polling stations were totally deserted, the Mojahedin's Command Headquarters inside Iran reported.
Although the elections are held Friday, a public holiday, observers at the polling stations speak of "a very low turn out." The internal power struggle has become so intense that even the factions within the regime have in various ways boycotted the by-elections to protest disqualification of their candidates by the Council of Guardians.
Fearful of clashes between rival factions, the regime has stationed large groups of heavily-armed Revolutionary Guards and State Security Forces at every polling station, where they quickly disperse curious onlookers.
The defeat of the clerical regime's sham elections bespeaks of the complete failure of Khatami's hollow maneuvers and the Iranian people's total rejection of this illegitimate and medieval dictatorship.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
March 13, 1998
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