Sham Elections – No. 2
The Iranian Regime’s Interior Minister is allocating 20 IRGC and security agents for each polling station.
The Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran reported on February 26, 2016 that the Iranian regime is so afraid of popular protests that it has called up all of its security forces to take action. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Bassij and other suppressive security and intelligence forces will be on the streets under the pretext of providing security for ballot boxes.
The real reason is not security for the ballot, but to create a climate of terror and fear, to prevent incidents of popular anger against the regime and the way they have manipulated the vote.
Rahmani Fazli, the Iranian regime’s Interior Minister, announced that more than one million security force personnel are involved in ensuring protection and security to 52000 polling stations. This was reported by the Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Qods Force, on February 23, 2016.
It this is true, it means there are around 20 suppressive agents at each polling station. Hossein Ashtari, commander of the regime’s security forces, stated that there will be 250000 security forces at the polling stations. This was reported on February 23, by the state’s own news agencies. At many of the country’s polling stations the number of Revolutionary Guards and Basij forces will outnumber voters.
Security forces will be backed up by Iran’s military aviation. Eskandar Momeni, deputy commander of the security forces, told state media that 26 helicopters and eight light airplanes will be used to control some of the regions on Friday.
Security forces have been preparing for this election for almost a year. Hassan Karami, a senior security forces commander, stated that since March 2015, the regime’s suppressive forces have been busy planning to confront any security threat on Election Day. “Long before the elections, we took steps to be combat and surveillance ready. Since the beginning of the current [Persian] year, training of other security forces units throughout the country was also placed on the agenda, the Mehr state news agency reported on February 24.
