Ottawa – On April 29, 2017, Iranian-Canadians held a demonstration in Ottawa outside parliament to denounce the upcoming sham election in Iran on 19 May 2017. The demonstrators also condemned human rights violations in Iran.
The demonstrators demanded support for the solution for democratic change in Iran declared by Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of Iranian resistance. Supporters of the Iranian resistance organized the protest. Demonstrators held banners reading “Stop Executions in Iran.” “No to Sham Election,” “No to Rouhani Imposter,” “No to Raisi mass killer, our vote is regime change” “Mullahs leader have to stand trial for the massacre of 1988.”
Demonstrators want the international community to hold the regime in Iran accountable for its flagrant violations of human rights, especially the massacre of 30000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988.
One graduate student who helped organize the demonstration said “We are protesting for a second time here in Ottawa, on Parliament Hill, to reveal the upcoming fraudulent election. We believe that similar to all previous so-called “elections,” no candidate was able to provide a broad political and economic program. All candidates failed to provide any hope for a better future. The vast majority of Iranians rejected the presidential election and its 6 candidates. They said the Iranian people will definitely boycott the upcoming election.”
“By holding this election, Supreme Leader Khamenei seeks to further concentrate his regime on the war mongering policy and instability in the region and suppression in Iran,” He added.
One of the main reasons that Iranian elections are a sham is that the power of the president’s is subjugated to the Supreme Leader Khamenei. All of the candidates are vetted by the Guardian Council affiliated to supreme leader.
The Guardian Council is a group of 12 clerics, six of whom are selected directly by Supreme Leader Khamenei. The other six are indirectly selected by Khamenei. This means there is no real choice for the Iranian people to vote for.
