As Iran faces a rare runoff presidential election, disenchanted voters are staying away

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Over 20 years ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stood before a crowd at Friday prayers to denounce the United States for its disenchanted electorate.

“It is disgraceful for a nation to have a 35% or 40% voter turnout, as happens in some of the nations that you see having presidential elections,” Khamenei said in 2001. “It is obvious that their people do not trust their political system, that they do not care about it and that they have no hope.”

Iran now faces what the ayatollah described.

Iran will hold a runoff presidential election Friday, only its second since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, after only 39.9% of its voting public cast a ballot the previous week. Of over 24.5 million votes, more than 1 million ballots were later rejected — typically a sign of people feeling obligated to head to the polls but wanting to reject all the candidates.

Meanwhile, public rage simmers after years of Iran's economy cratering to new lows, along with bloody crackdowns on dissent, including over the mass protests sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini after her detention by the country's morality police allegedly over not wearing her headscarf to their liking. Tensions with the West remain high as Iran enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.

Now, hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili faces the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon who likely needs a widespread turnout to win the presidency. Pezeshkian's supporters warn of dark days ahead under Jalili. Meanwhile, many people are unconvinced that their vote even matters.

“I did not vote and I will not, since nobody apologized because of Mahsa and later miseries that young people face, neither the reformists nor the hard-liners," said Leila Seyyedi, a 23-year-old university student studying graphic design.

Iranian election law requires a candidate to get over 50% of the vote to avoid a runoff. In results released Saturday, Pezeshkian got 10.4 million votes while Jalili received 9.4 million. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf came in third with 3.3 million, while Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had over 206,000.

Most voters for Qalibaf, a former general in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and national police chief known for his crackdowns against students and for corruption allegations, likely will break for Jalili after Qalibaf endorsed him, analysts say. That has put Jalili, a 58-year-old known as the “Living Martyr” for losing a leg in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, in the lead position for the runoff.

But his recalcitrant reputation among Western diplomats during negotiations over Iran's nuclear program is paired with concern at home over his views. One politician who has aligned himself with the moderates, former Iranian Information and Communications Technology Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, put the choice between Jalili and Pezeshkian more starkly.

“We will not let Iran fall into the hands of the Taliban,” he wrote on social platform X.

But even such dark warnings seemingly failed to have an effect. On the streets of Tehran after the June 28 vote, many told The Associated Press they didn't care about the election.

“I did not vote, as former presidents failed to realize their promises," said Ahmad Taheri, a 27-year-old psychology student. “I will not vote this coming Friday either.”

Mohammad Ali Robati, a 43-year-old electronic engineer and a father of two, said Iranian officials' apparent indifference to people's economic pressures caused him not to vote.

“After years of economic difficulties, I have no interest in politics,” Robati said, though he held out the possibility of voting Friday.

At the time of Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, the exchange rate for Iran's currency was 32,000 rials to $1. Today, it’s 617,000 rials to $1 — and many have found the value of their bank accounts, retirement funds and other holdings gouged by years of depreciation. It's nearing its record low of 700,000 rials, briefly reached after Iran's unprecedented direct attack on Israel in April.

Meanwhile, anger over Amini’s death in September 2022 persists. Her death, in which United Nations investigators said Iran's government was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to it, sparked months of protests and a security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and saw over 22,000 detained. Less than two years later, hard-liners within Iran’s theocracy have pressed forward with a renewed hijab crackdown.

“The voter participation levels and blank ballots represented a repudiation of regime policies, particularly its crackdown on critics and women who refuse to comply with laws requiring full head covering,” the New York-based Soufan Center think tank said in an analysis Monday.

Pezeshkian has written on X that his government would resist the police enforcement of the hijab along with restrictions on the internet. However, Tahereh Namazi, a 31-year-old mathematics teacher, said she didn't vote because neither candidate made a clear pledge on those issues.

Those who didn't vote and spoke to the AP described their decision as their own, not part of an organized boycott.

Whether voters heed Pezeshkian on Friday remains in question. In recent days, he has repeatedly cited the story of the “selfless farmer,” a tale told to nearly every Iranian child at school about a farmer in 1961 who stripped off his own shirt and set it ablaze to warn a train about boulders blocking the tracks.

Those not taking part in the election believe the train has already crashed.

Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran. Amir Vahdat in Tehran contributed to this report.

In this photo made available by Iranian state-run TV, IRIB, Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, speaks during a debate with reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian at the TV studio in Tehran, Iran, Monday, July 1, 2024. (Morteza Fakhri Nezhad/IRIB via AP)

In this photo made available by Iranian state-run TV, IRIB, Iranian presidential candidate reformist Masoud Pezeshkian listens during a debate with hard-line candidate Saeed Jalili at the TV studio in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2024. (Morteza Fakhri Nezhad/IRIB via AP)

In this photo made available by Iranian state-run TV, IRIB, Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, left, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, and reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian greet one another at the conclusion of a debate at the TV studio in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2024. (Morteza Fakhri Nezhad/IRIB via AP)

In this photo made available by Iranian state-run TV, IRIB, Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, speaks during a debate with reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian at the TV studio in Tehran, Iran, Monday, July 1, 2024. (Morteza Fakhri Nezhad/IRIB via AP)

In this photo made available by Iranian state-run TV, IRIB, Iranian presidential candidate reformist Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a debate with hard-line candidate Saeed Jalili at the TV studio in Tehran, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2024. (Morteza Fakhri Nezhad/IRIB via AP)

A supporter of Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili holds up a poster of Jalili during his campaign stop in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, gestures as he pays his respect to a group of athlete supporters during a campaign stop at a sports hall in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A supporter of Iranian presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian holds up a poster of the reformist during a campaign stop in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian waves to his supporters while campaigning in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian waves to his supporters while campaigning in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, gestures while meeting with a group of athlete supporters during a campaign stop at a sports hall in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, speaks to a group of athlete supporters during a campaign stop at a sports hall in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, right, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, listens to a woman during a campaign stop at a sports hall in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian and his supporters flash the victory sign during a campaign stop in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian presidential candidate Saeed Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator, speaks to a group of athlete supporters during a campaign stop at a sports hall in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that recently deployed Kenyan police will be crucial to helping control the country’s gangs and moving toward democratic elections — and he called feedback from their initial days in the capital “extremely, extremely positive.”

He said his government will focus on addressing gang violence and food insecurity, ensuring free elections through constitutional and political reform, and rebuilding public trust in the police.

On June 25, the initial contingent of 200 Kenyan police arrived in Port-au-Prince. Kenya has pledged 1,000 police to the international police force and Conille said the next contingent will be arriving “very soon.” They will later be joined by police from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica in the force that will total 2,500 personnel.

Haiti asked for an international force to combat gangs in 2022, and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for months for a country to lead the force before the Kenyans came forward.

The gangs have grown in power since the July 7, 2021, assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and are now estimated to control up to 80% of the capital. The surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.

Conille, a former U.N. development specialist, took up his post as prime minister last month after being voted in by a transitional council.

With the help of the international police force, Conille is tasked with stabilizing the country in preparation for democratic elections in February 2026.

“More than ever Haiti must mobilize all the necessary and available resources to make this transition the last one, a transition that could set it on the path toward peace, security and sustainable development,” Conille told the council.

He said Haiti intends to “redefine our approaches” to build “strong and effective institutions” by the time the police leave Haiti.

Since its arrival, the Kenyan police contingent has held “operational meetings” with the national police and started “joint operations” for the mission, Kenya’s U.N. Ambassador Njambi Kinyungu said.

In February, gangs launched coordinated attacks on government infrastructure, including roads, prisons, and the Port-au-Prince airport, eventually leading Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign in April.

The violence has resulted in the displacement of 580,000 people, more than half of whom are children, according to the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF. The World Food Program reports that more than 4 million Haitians face food insecurity.

Conille called the country’s history of foreign intervention a “mixed bag” that has included human rights abuses and a “lack of respect for sovereignty and local culture.”

“Haiti must escape the spiral of security missions once and for all,” the prime minister said.

Conille said the international police force will require “close coordination and constant communication between all the parties involved to ensure the mistakes of the past are not repeated.”

U.N. Special Representative for Haiti María Isabel Salvador urged the international community to contribute to the fund financing the police operation.

Kenya’s Kinyungu and Foreign Minister Roberto Álvarez Gil of the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, also called for countries that have made pledges to the fund to deposit the money. Álvarez Gil said this should be done “as soon as possible.”

The United States pledged $309 million to the police mission, the largest contribution of any country. Kinyungu said Kenya is “working closely with the United States” to distribute supplies in Haiti, but the U.S. funding has not yet arrived.

At the council meeting, Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia criticized the U.S. for failing to prevent arms smuggling to Haiti’s gangs.

“We do not see the current embargo doing anything to prevent the flow of arms from the U.S.,” Nebenzia said. “If it wished to do so, Washington could have long tackled this problem.”

Earlier, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said that the United States is “concerned about the illicit flow of arms into Haiti” and is “actively working to enforce the arms embargo.”

Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.

Kenyan police patrol the area near the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

A Kenyan police officer patrols the area near the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

A Kenyan police officer patrols an area near the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Pedestrians cross a street as Kenyan police officers patrol an area near the international airport, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Kenyan police officers patrol an area near the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

A Kenyan police officer takes candid photos of a group of Haitians welcoming the officers, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Kenyan and Haitian police patrol an area near the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

A Kenyan police officer takes candid photos as Haitian and Kenyan police chat with each other at the entrance gate to the General Directorate of Police, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Kenyan police patrol an area near the international airport as a man holds a sign with a welcome message and a plea for jobs, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

A Kenyan police officer patros an area near the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)