Presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi waves to onlookers during the Iranian presidential election on Friday, June 18, 2021. (Credit: Majid Asgaripour, WANA, Reuters)
Hardline conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi was declared the new president of Iran today, after a controversial election with historically low turnout garnered him 62% of the vote, according to Iranian authorities. Supreme Ayatollah Khamenei took to Twitter to “salute Imam Mahdi” (the Islamic Messiah figure, who Shi’a Muslims believe is hidden in occultation until the end times) and to declare the election as a win for the nation of Iran, claiming, “they have again stood up to the propaganda of the enemy's mercenary media & the urgings of the simple-minded & the ill-wishers." Current president Hassan Rouhani visited Raisi to congratulate him on Saturday. Rouhani will hand the reigns of Iran’s civil government to Raisi in six weeks.
However, the abysmally low voter turnout in Friday’s election contrasts sharply with Khamenei’s glowing optimism. Official turnout was only 48% of eligible voters, the lowest in any presidential election since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, with many analysts suggesting that the actual turnout may not have reached 40%. The low turnout is indicative of widespread Iranian frustration with their electoral system, which allows radical clerics in the ruling Guardian Council to disqualify candidates who advocate for any meaningful reform. Raisi’s administration is also not expected to alter that course of the Iranian nuclear talks or IRGC involvement in Iraq and Syria, as Khamenei and his council direct Iranian foreign policy.
Raisi is an infamous figure inside Iran, the head of the Islamic Republic’s judiciary, and personally responsible for the imprisonment, torture and execution of thousands of political dissidents as part of a 4-member “death panel,” in 1988. He is sanctioned by the United States government and is a top figure of concern for human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. Raisi wears a black turban, signifying his claim to be a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammad. Many analysts believe that the 81-year-old Khameini is grooming Raisi to succeed him as supreme ayatollah, and that the latest “election” is a step in that direction.
We would ask the global Maranatha family to continue in prayer with us for the people of Iran, who continue to suffer repression, poverty, imprisonment, torture and death under the government of the Islamic Republic. We pray that the regime’s ambitions throughout the Middle East would be restrained, and that the enemy’s attempts to stoke fear, violence and war throughout the region would be thwarted. We pray that Western nations, Arab nations, and the Jewish State would be granted divine wisdom and unity in confronting Iran in its nuclear program, missile proliferation, and human rights abuses inside Iran and elsewhere. And as always, we pray that the corruption and depravity of the Iranian regime would be a primary means by which the Spirit of Truth opens Iranian eyes to a Better Word, and the failure of the Islamic Republic would turn Iranian hearts to a Lasting City, whose Architect and Builder is God.
Maranatha.
