Yasser Rafsanjani, son of one of the founders of the Islamic Republic, criticized the regime from his home in Tehran • "Militants and Revolutionary Guards have demolished democracy," he said.

• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei // Photo: IP

The low turnout in the Iranian parliamentary elections yesterday (Saturday), which ended in a big victory for the extremist conservative faction in Majlis, the Iranian parliament, today caused severe criticism in Iran over the regime's conduct around the elections.

Yasser Rafsanjani, son of Akbar Hashmi Rafsanjani, one of the founders of the Islamic Republic, former president and one of the strong figures in the early days of the regime, attacked the extremist parliament in the British newspaper Guardian, the Revolutionary Guards and the regime's intervention in the democratic process.

"Our society is sick. It's a virus that attacks it, like the Corona virus, only of our basic values," he tells the British newspaper from his home in Tehran, a rare act of defiance against the authorities. "Our democracy has become an eunuch, a servant. They have been castrated. Those who blame it are the militia, the Revolutionary Guards and the committees that limit the ability of simple people to cope."

Rafsanjani refers to the rejection of hundreds of reformist candidates by the Guard Board, a body composed of clerics and jurists subordinate to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This disqualification has left a huge number of Iranian citizens feeling that not only do they have no one to vote for, their choices anyway. "People are coming out to vote when they believe they can make a difference. The people have repeatedly asked for their regime but their voice is not heard," Rafsanjani explains the despair of the citizens who were absent from the polls.

Rafsanjani, unlike his younger brother Moshan, who was previously arrested after visiting the regime, maintains good relations with the country's leadership, including President Rouhani. He mourns the US exit from the nuclear deal with Iran, but believes that it is not only President Trump, whom he calls "crazy," responsible for the situation Tehran has been in.

"When Khamenei signed the nuclear agreement, my father told him that he must guard against the four enemies of the agreement, the Sunni Arab states, Israel, the extremists in the United States and the extremists in Iran," he says, drawing a straight line between Iran's opponents in Washington and the extremists in his country. "I support any kind of direct negotiation, anytime. The nuclear agreement was good for Iran and allowed our economy to grow."

Akbar Hashmi Rafsanjani commanded the Iranian army during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. He was a prominent supporter of Ali Khamenei and helped him to be elected the country's top leader, thanks to his good relations with the religious establishment. Rafsanjani served as Iranian president from 1989-1997, trying to run against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 but lost the election. He died in 2017.