JERUSALEM – The Biden administration recently allowed Iranian citizens to vote in the totalitarian regime’s sham presidential election from makeshift booths in a handful of U.S. hotels, drawing the ire of the terror-sponsoring nation.
Biden green-lighted Iranian regime voting stations across America for election of the president of the Islamic Republic. The contest on Friday resulted in the victory of Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon, over the former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. Pezeshkian secured secured 53.3% of the vote while Jalili received 44.3%.
Many Iranian observers bitterly complained on X that the mainstream media had falsely framed the election as a vote between the “reformer” Pezeshkian and the “hardliner” Jalili.
Kaveh Shahrooz, an Iranian-Canadian expert on Iran’s regime, urged a “two-front battle” to debunk the myth that Pezeshkian is a reformer and to unite the Iranian opposition against the regime in Tehran.
“But now, with the selection of a ‘reformist’ president, they will revive their lies about the Iranian regime’s capacity for change,” wrote Shahrooz.
The largely symbolic presidential position is controlled by the unelected Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on domestic and foreign policies. Khamenei selects who can run for president. Hence, Iranians call it a “selection” and not a real election.
Last Friday’s first round of voting saw the lowest participation since the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution established a theocratic state. The Iranian regime’s Interior Ministry said that yesterday’s election produced over 30 million votes. The alleged turnout of 50% in the run-off election was higher than the first round (40%) on June 2, but still low by historical standards. Eyewitness reports and videos showed empty polling stations in Iran.
Fox News Digital confirmed on Friday that the run-off vote had not taken place at the Lynwood hotel, but had been relocated to another Seattle-area hotel.
After Iranian-Americans and Iranian-Canadians showed up at the second hotel to protest on Friday, the manager canceled the vote.
Iran’s regime announced the polling locations through its representative in the U.S., the Pakistani embassy in Washington D.C. A link is published that lists the voting locations in more than 30 U.S. cities. The information about voting was released on each Friday, ostensibly to prevent organized demonstrations against the Iranian regime election.
Video footage and photographs showed protests against the polling stations in Massachusetts, Arizona, California and Washington.
According to a Voice of America report, voting took place in the first round at hotels and various other properties in Nebraska, New York, California, Texas, New Jersey, Ohio, Arizona, Chicago, Illinois and Kansas.