Loghman H. Ahmedi

PDKI and Komala urges people to boycott the “elections”

May 21, 2009, 6:24 pm | Under Iran, Kurdistan

In a joint statement our party and Komala urged the people of Kurdistan and Iran to boycott the upcoming presidential election in Iran. The statement describes the election in terms of a charade and points to the fact that the Guardian Council has only approved 4 candidates out of the several hundred that decided to run for the presidency. PDKI and Komala describes this process in Iran not as an election but rather as an appointment by the ruling elite in Tehran.

Furthermore the statement urges the Kurdish people not to be deceived by promises about minority rights (which the regime describes i terms of “tribal rights”). Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamnei, visited Iranian Kurdistan and spent 8 days in different Kurdish cities, making different speeches urging the Kurdish people not to listen to “satanic groups” (referring to Kurdish political parties). Two of the regimes candidates have presented different political “programs” on how to deal with the “issues of the different tribes of Iran”, promising to work for these “tribes’” integration into the Islamic political system. Beside the fact that Kurdish opposition groups’ reject the notion that Kurds and other nationalities are “Iranian tribes”, they have described these programs as a tool to mislead the different nationalities, in particular the Kurdish people who have in large boycotted previous elections in Iran, in order to win legitimacy by claiming that the different nationalities are supporting the regime through their participating in the elections.

Furthermore the statement asks the Kurdish people and other nationalities in Iran to boycott the elections on the basis of the regime’s actions during the past 30 years. The different nationalities in Iran will not be granted their rights as long as the current system is in place; the different nationalities demands for rights and share of power in Iran have been refused by the regime during the past 30 years, and the regime will not change its policy of denying them these rights.

The statement also points to the fact that the current legal framework does not allow real change in relation to democracy and minority rights. PDKI and Komala also urge the Kurdish people to take into account that the regime is facing pressure both from within the country and from the International Community on issues that the regime cannot solve. Thus a participation in the elections will only grant the regime legitimacy to continue its destructive policies both inside and outside of Iran’s boarders.

PDKI and Komala urges people to boycott the “elections”

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