Iran’s supreme leader is terrified of people power

Ahead of the first round of Iran’s presidential election on June 28th, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, said that any vote was a vote for his Islamic Republic. By that test the poll raises deep questions about the decaying regime’s legitimacy. Some 60% of the country’s 61m-strong electorate have withheld their vote, resulting in the lowest turnout on record. The streets of Tehran, the capital, were uncannily quiet on polling day with many people dismissing the exercise as a farce in a country being ruined by dictatorship. Instead of queues outside polling stations, election monitors slept at their desks in empty mosques.

Don’t mistake calm for stability, however. The system is still reeling from the mysterious death of the presidential incumbent, Ebrahim Raisi, in a helicopter crash on May 19th. And the surprise results mean a second round will take place on July 5th, which could further expose the fissures in Iranian society and the fragility of the regime.