Iran elections 2016: To boycott or not to boycott?

If you are walking in Tehran these days you will see that the hottest news is the upcoming parliamentary elections tomorrow (26 February). The streets are full of colourful posters of candidates who were approved by the Guardian Council, a body responsible for screening applicants and monitoring elections.

The rhetoric is different. One promises " to render services to youth", while another pledges "welfare". The competition is not limited to the candidates but also is between the supporters of different groups. One group does not see any reason to vote and prefers to boycott the elections, because it claims the system doesn't care about people's votes and views.

The other cannot see a desirable candidate. There is a third group that is more active now compared to four years ego. It believes in the current situation the best political action is massive participation in the elections otherwise the public may face negative implications.

Those who boycotted the 2012 parliamentary election due to different political considerations have now changed their minds and initiated campaign for encouraging people to participate in the elections.

I visit the campaign of one reformist candidate. Reformism is a political discourse for change .The rival of the group is conservatism or fundamentalism preferring the status quo and resisting any change.

I ask 28-year-old Mohammad Ali, who is wearing a T-shirt sporting a picture of Mohammad Reza Aref, the most important reformist candidate, why the upcoming elections are so important to him. Ali says: "Four years ago I did not vote and tried to convince my close friends and relatives to do the same. That time I was thinking that boycotting the election was a proper political action against the ruling system.

"It was after the controversial presidential election of seven years ago that many believed was not a sound and fair election rather a rigged one. So I decided to say 'No' to the election in 2012, but that 'No' had negative implications and marginalized the rational politicians and hardliners who with a narrow vote took the parliament. Still I am not sure that my vote will be counted or not but I decided to trust the voting process."

French literature student Sara says: "The incumbent parliament deputies create many obstacles for us. They even opposed the nuclear deal that opened the doors of the world to us and took our country from under heavy economic sanctions.

"They consider the deal as against the national interest. They prefer an isolated Iran to an active and participative one. I feel if we were massively participating in the election four years ago, now we would have more rational parliament.

"I want to vote from a list of candidates where I may not like them all but at least they are more moderate than the existing deputies. The atmosphere of election is warm and neither the reformists nor their rivals, the conservatives, are sparing any effort to win."

Blogger Reza studied sociology. He says: "In the nuclear deal we gave many concession to the West and if we didn't have the current hard-line conservative government the West would have penetrated even further into Iran."

He believes Iran needs a parliament that will resist further foreign influence and attach more importance to Islam than politics. He says: "The incumbent government wants to have excessive interaction with the West which is not acceptable.

"If we had a parliament in line with the moderate government the US would have transfered Iran to its backyard to penetrate in the region. After the last presidential election in 2013 a new political thinking came to existence called 'moderation' which in fact is the child of conservatism and reformism and is in the middle of the two. Many of the pro-Rouhani administration belongs to this camp. Although most of them don't fully believe in it, they see the only solution is to support the ruling administration."

Beauty salon owner Parisa says she was never interested in politics and does not understand the political jargons but believes the moderate Rouhani Administration defends citizens from hard-line conservatives and supports their freedom

She says: "I like our foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Iranian officials like him that know how to negotiate and how to speak to the world. The Rouhani team proved that we can trust them. In the upcoming parliamentary election I would like to vote for those who are capable and close to the administration and able the improve the situation."

Other groups say while they do not recognize the existing regime, they believe in boycotting the election and they encourage the other people to do so.

Arash, 35, is one such person. He says: "The regime imposed its own rules of the game and we surrender to those rules. There is no difference between conservatives and reformists, they're all the same. If one day all the people unified and didn't vote, the legitimacy of the regime would fade. The regime needs our votes, so as we approach the election season it insists on a massive turn-out in the voting. We should not be deceived."

The supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei always urges Iranian people to take the election seriously, to vote and decide their own fate even if they do not recognize the system. We have to wait until 26 February 26 to see which party wins.