Iran’s interior minister calls Friday runoff vote “epic”, critics outcry

Ahmad Vahidi said the turnout in the second rounds of elections has always been lower than the first round but this time around it was higher compared to the previous vote’s runoff.

Vahidi also called the turnout “epic”, adding that the enemies of Iran tried to cause security problems during the vote but they failed in doing so.

However, Vahidi’s remarks were criticized. Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran’s minister of communications under former president Hassan Rouahni, said in a post on X that by the word “epic”, Vahidi probably meant the 92% of the would-be voters who declined to turn out for the elections.

The former president’s advisor Hessamedin Ashna also reacted to Vahidi’s comments. In his post on X, Ashna said, “If we call this turnout “epic”, we have deprived ourselves and the ruling establishment of understanding the necessity of knowing the weaknesses under the current circumstances”.

The second round of the parliamentary elections was held on Friday in 22 constituency nationwide. 90 candidates contested for the remaining 45 seats, including 16 ones in Tehran.