Mohsen Hashemi said some blank votes were due to fear of government repercussions.
Mohsen Hashemi mentioned that invalid votes have two parts: one part is because people were told that if they don’t vote, they are not Muslims, so they came and cast blank votes. Some also think that if they don’t participate in the elections, they might face harsh consequences in life because their national ID code won’t be registered, so they came and voted, but with a blank vote.
In his analysis of the March 1st elections, he said that hardline conservatives are satisfied with the election results because they aimed for low participation.
Hashemi continued by saying that opposition groups, mostly outside the country, had extensively campaigned for a lack of participation in the elections, and unfortunately, we observed this in major cities. For example, in a city like Tehran, with about 76% non-participation and around 8% invalid votes, it can be said they were satisfied and managed to reduce participation in the elections to its lowest level, at least in major cities.
He added that people did not go to the polls with the thought that the government would hear their voice in this way. As a result, a parliament has come into power that is more hardline than the current one, and this message has been conveyed to the world that Iran has become one degree more hardline.