Iran : General shutdown of reformer press on the eve of second ballot
After several weeks of humming and hawing about the nullification of the results of the first ballot in the legislative elections of 18 February last, the conservative faction just announced via the organisms under its control that the second ballot will take place on 5May in 52 districts and that the sixih Assembly will start to work, as foreseen, towards the end of the same month. Although uncertainty remains about the fate of the results of the first ballot in the country's most important constituency, i.e. Tehran, the announcement that the second ballot will indeed be held and that the sixth Assembly will start to work at the scheduled date, was considered positive by certain people inside and outside the country, who believe that the victory of the " refomer " tendency is like a step towards establishing freedom in Iran.
Let us not forget, however, that if the conservative tendency apparently gave in on one side, it organized at the same time a wider-reaching attack against the liberation mouvement of the peoples of our country : 16 newspapers were shut down, independent and reformer journalists were all arrested, and political trials were multiplied against intellectuals who has gone from Tehran to attend a conference there on 7 and 8 April on " Iran's future ". The Conservatives thus attempt to reach two objectives :
- One objective,of a more general nature, consists in muzzling the reformer press and thereby in preventing promulgation of the truth and expression of undesirable ideas and concepts, while preventing the population of being informed of events happening in Iran and abroad.
- Another (short term) objective consists in preventing disclosure of the frauds and injustice which the conservative tendency intends to commit during the second ballot in order to make the candidates of its choice comme out of the ballot boxes and so to reduce, partially at least, its bitter defeat during the first ballot.
Yet the usurpers of the rights and freedoms of the Iranian population may rest assured that their freedom-killing schemes will meet with even bitterer defeat and fall in total disrepute as a final result. Because :
- First : although the press and in particular the reformer papers played a valued part as regards information, it should not be forgotten that these same papers are the products of a galloping liberation movement. Deeply rooted in Iranian society, this movement is irreversible. Iranian society, simmering and perpetually changing, has demonstrated that it is capable of finding adequate means to express itself and to put forward its legitimate claims. It would be pointless therefore to try to reduce it to sillence.
Secondly : as regards the ballot, we duly noted that the population had already come to a decision during the first ballot : a total disowning of the candidates supported by the regime, especially of those supported by the conservative and monopolistic faction. It is therefore pointless to resort to such schemes. We are convinced that, in Kurdistan as well as in other parts of the country, there will be a very high turnout at the polls in the second ballot and that the voters will elect the candidates of their choice and worthy of their trust.
We are fully conscious of the fact that, in view fo the considerable power levers it holds, the conservative faction is very much able to prevent the formation of the sixth Assembly or to hold up implementation of the latter's decisions. But we are also convinced that the determination and the will of the peoples of Iran, their aspiration for fundamental changes to be implemented in the country's political structure, will eventually get the better of the usurpers of their rights, and that these peoples will achieve their ideal, i.e. the establishmen of a free and democratic society based on social justice.
We strongly condemn the freedom-killing schemes of the conservative and monopolistic faction against the press, the journalists and the intellectuals, and we call : - upon the democrats, the political, humanitarian and human rights organizations throughout the world to combine their efforts to have the incarcerated journalists and intellectuals released, and to have the decision of shutting down the reformer newspapers quashed ; - The voters in Kurdistan and in other parts of Iran to take part actively and massively in the second ballot and to inflict an even stronger defeat on the monopolistic faction by voting for candidates who deserve their trust.
Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan Political Bureau
