In the run-up to the Iranian regime’s presidential election, the activist network of the main Iranian opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), has been engaged in an extensive, nationwide campaign calling on Iranians to boycott the elections.
There has been a conspicuous uptick in the activities of the resistance network in recent weeks despite huge risks of arrest, torture and even execution. Iranian state media and some regime officials have publicly warned about these activities in recent weeks.
The extent of Resistance activities throughout the country is greater ahead of this year’s election than during previous campaigns, including the 2013 campaign that brought President Hassan Rouhani to power.
These activities have involved hanging huge portraits of the Iranian opposition leader, Maryam Rajavi, from overpasses or bridges in major freeways in Tehran and other cities, posting her picture on walls in public locations, at bazaars, and outside the paramilitary Bassji headquarters, as well as placing them on the windshields of cars and distributing flyers and T-shirts with the MEK emblem and calling for regime change.
The pictures were accompanied by slogans such as “no to murderer (i.e. Ebrahim Raisi), no to imposter (i.e. Hassan Rouhani)”; “our vote: regime overthrow”; “My vote: Maryam Rajavi”; and “Down with the clerical regime, Down with Khamenei, Hail to Rajavi”.
Maryam Rajavi is the President-elect of the Iranian resistance. She has declared a 10 point plan of fundamental freedoms for the future of Iran.
On April 8, Maryam Rajavi said: "Both factions of the regime failed to find a way to preserve the regime. What is more, why should the Iranian people jump from the frying pan into the fire? No! The Iranian people reject both a black and a white turban. The Velayat-e faqih regime (absolute rule of the clergy) must be overthrown in its entirety."
Observers have noted that the opposition has had an impact on Iranian society in the run up to the elections. It has made a public issue of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners, in which 30,000 people were executed in a matter of a few months, most of them activists of the MEK. Regime officials, state media and even the candidates have recently addressed the massacre despite the fact that Tehran had made this subject a taboo for almost three decades.
The nationwide activities were carried out in such cities as Tehran, Tabriz, Orumiyeh, Zanjan (northwest); Mashhad and Birjand (northeast); Karaj, Qazvin, Hemedan, Kermanshah, and Sanandaj (west); Isfahan, Qom, Arak, Broujen, Yasooj, Rafsanjan, and Yazd (central Iran); Babol and Sari (north), Shiraz, Bandar Abbas, Boushehr, Iranshahr, and Pasargad [where the tomb of Cyrus the Great is located] (south).
Activists of the MEK have been the main victims of the ruling theocracy in Iran. Some 120,000 MEK activists have been executed in Iran over the years.
In addition to activities on the ground throughout Iran, there has been a growing campaign on the internet and social media, particularly on the Telegram messaging app, which is extensively used by the Iranians, and especially by the youth of the country.
