Monitoring of various polling stations in Tehran, for example in N. Kargar St., Mada'en Ave., the State Security Force district, Iran Hospital, Al-qadir Mosque, Seyyed Azizollah Ardebili Mosque, South Terminal, etc. as well as reports from other major cities, like Isfahan, Kermanshah, Karaj, Zanjan, Qasr-e Shirin, Jahrom, Najaf-Abad, Qa'emshahr and Ardebil, reveal that most of the polling stations were deserted until noon or the number of voters did not exceed a few, the Mojahedin's Command Headquarters in Iran reported.
The boycott is more evident in Tehran where the scenes broadcast by the state television, which has devoted all its programs to the elections special, showed completely deserted polling stations.
The boycott comes despite the fact that in recent days and weeks, Khamenei, Khatami, Rafsanjani and other leaders of the regime had repeatedly urged the public to participate in the elections. The government also devoted large sections of its radio and television programs and most pages of its newspapers to the publicity around this election sham. The regime's various factions of the regime also used all their energy and enormous funds to publicized their candidates.
All the regime's leaders who were shown voting on the state television, once again called on the public to take part in the elections.
The NCR President Massoud Rajavi described the election sham as "anti-democratic" and expressed confidence that the people of Iran will boycott it. He said due to its blatant opposition to a representative government, the theocratic regime ruling Iran is not congruent with the Councils' and a consular system.
The clerical regime has put all of its forces, the State Security Force, the Guards Corps and the Bassij, on full alert in fear of popular protests. The Ministry of the Interior has announced that it has deployed 140,000 of its personnel to control the polling stations.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
February 26, 1999
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