Iran holds first elections since Mahsa Amini protests, with low turnout and boycott expected

• Imprisoned Iranian activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi said that a boycott of the election "is not only a political necessity but also a moral duty."
• A low turnout is expected as many Iranians boycott the vote, disenchanted and angry with a system they believe is rigged or has been ineffective in improving their lives amid an economic crisis.
• The barring of any reformist and even many moderately conservative candidates from the political race points to a "hard-right shift" in Iran's politics led by its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, one analyst told CNBC.

Iran holds its parliamentary elections on Friday, in the first vote for Iranians since a nationwide protest movement for women's rights rocked the country in 2022.

Some 15,000 candidates are competing for places in Iran's 290-seat Parliament, called the Islamic Consultative Assembly. The vote will also determine future members of the 88-member Assembly of Experts, which is a panel of clerics serving eight-year terms who choose the next Supreme Leader of Iran once the current leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, steps down or dies. Khamenei is 84.

But a low turnout is expected as many Iranians boycott the vote, disenchanted and angry with a system they believe is rigged or has been ineffective in improving their lives amid an economic crisis and broad lack of social and political freedoms.

"No one cares anymore. Nobody is going to participate and all the nominees are 'approved' by the government meaning people hate them," Mehdi, a business owner based in Tehran, told CNBC. "The numbers will be so low that the government will probably fake them." Mehdi requested only his first name be used for fear of reprisal by the Iranian government.

Imprisoned