Serious electoral flaws and human rights abuses by the Iranian government undermine any meaningful prospect of free and fair elections on June 14 Human Rights Watch said.
Dozens of political activists and journalists detained during the violent government crackdown that followed the disputed 2009 presidential election remain in prison, two former presidential candidates are under house arrest, and authorities are already clamping down on access to the internet, having arbitrarily disqualified most registered presidential and local election candidates.
As the elections approach, authorities have tightened controls on information by severely cutting back internet speeds and blocking proxy servers and virtual private networks that Iranians use to circumvent government filtering of websites, HRW said in a statement on Friday. The authorities have also gone after government critics, summoning, arresting, and jailing journalists and bloggers, while preventing opposition figures and parties aligned with Iran's reformist movement from participating in the elections by banning or severely restricting their activities, it added.
"Fair elections require a level playing field in which candidates can freely run and voters can make informed decisions," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "How can Iran hold free elections when opposition leaders are behind bars and people can't speak freely?" she asked.
The June 14 elections for Iran's next president will take place alongside voting to fill more than 200,000 seats on city and village councils, with only officially approved candidates on the ballot in all cases. The registration period for presidential candidates closed on May 11. On May 21 Iranian state television announced that the Guardian Council had finished vetting more than 680 registered presidential candidates and accepted a final list of eight men. Well-known and prominent figures disqualified by the Guardian Council included former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's adviser Rahim Mashaei, former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, and former Foreign Affairs Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
The week before, authorities had disqualified several hundred candidates who had registered to run as city and village council election candidates. Some local council candidates have appealed their exclusion, but Iran's electoral law makes no provision for appeals by disqualified presidential candidates. The Guardian Council does not, as a matter of practice, publicize the reasons why candidates are disqualified.
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