In its approximately 46 years of bloody existence, the Islamic Republic regime in Iran has never been as desperate for legitimacy as it has been since the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising of 2022.

Mahsa Jina’s death exposed this regime’s dark and tyrannical nature to the world. The first election held after the 2022 uprising was the Parliamentary election of 2023, which, saw a participation rate of less than 25 percent of the eligible population. Even according to the regime’s own sources that have always engineered numbers, the participation rate was 40 percent—the lowest in the regime’s history.

Being a theocracy, this regime does not believe in the people as the source of power and legitimacy. However, it understands that, in reality, ultimate power lies with the people, and it cannot maintain its grip on power without creating some illusion of legitimacy.

Now, after the suspicious death of Ibrahim Raisi, “the butcher of Tehran” and the regime’s president in May 2024, and the upcoming presidential election, the regime seems to be plotting to restore its legitimacy with two goals: proving to the international community that it still has the support of the Iranian people and dividing and separating the Iranian people.

The regime’s Guardian Council, which has a long history of suppressing free elections and disqualifying candidates, has allowed six out of 84 candidates to compete in this election: five from conservative Islamic fundamentalist parties and one from the reformist party.

The entire show is about putting these two fronts in opposition and glorifying the apparently reformist candidate to heat up the cold election atmosphere and encourage the people to participate in the sham election.

This is a shabby tactic the regime has employed many times; however, it is fascinating to see the so-called reformists are still collaborating with the regime to trick the people.

What is clear is that the Iranian people will not fall for these gestures anymore. They have been chanting in the streets of Iran, “Reformists, Fundamentalists, the game is over.” They have seen how Khatami and Rouhani’s governments betrayed them and proved that they were part of the regime’s bloody game.

The shameful foreign minister of Rouhani’s government, Javed Zarif, who admitted in interviews that he had no power as the foreign minister and that all decisions were made for him by the IRGC generals, has returned to the stage to tell people that if they vote for the reformist candidate, he will solve all the problems.

Zarif and other so-called reformists have been allowed to join the election circus only because they promised the regime that they could deceive the people and bring them back to the voting polls. The regime and its fundamentalist core know well that Iranians despise them and have long lost their trust in them.

As such, they believe their only winning ticket might be bringing reformists into the game to pretend to play pluralism and democracy. They have forgotten that the reformists have long lost their charm too.

Reformist Zarif is the one who shamelessly looked into the camera and told international journalists not to be fooled by the voices of dissident Iranians; if the regime were illegitimate, 70 percent of people would not have participated in the election.

He knew well that each time Iranians overwhelmingly participated in the election, it was to vote for the reformist candidates, Khatami, Mousavi, and Rouhani, with the hope of bringing change to their miserable situation. However, their votes were counted as votes for the regime and evidence of the regime’s legitimacy.

Having learned this lesson, the remaining hopeful Iranians separated their path from reformists after the 2017, if not 2009, presidential election. Iranians know that no matter who is the president, their country won’t be free and fair as long as this dark corrupt theocracy is in place.

Iranians inside Iran and the diaspora around the world are committed to play their roles and pay their share to achieve a democratic and free Iran; one exposing the illegitimacy of the regime by saying no to the election circus and the other pressuring the Western states to stop normalising this regime and to designate IRGC and other regime’s entities as terrorist organisations as we saw in Canada last week.