May 21, The Iran Project | Ali Hassan Heidari: Despite the West’s propaganda against the Islamic republic of Iran, the participation of Iranian people in the presidential election demonstrates the fact that Iran enjoys wider and relatively steady voter turnout. The rate of voter turnout in various free elections in Iran has been higher than European countries.

The path to the realization of democracy passes through election, one of the elements of political participation which is also one of the measures of democracy, as people can directly express their views about important decisions through voting. Voter turnout is also one of the criteria of political development which displays people’s dedication to their home country.

The rate of voter turnout is not considerable in many advanced countries that are advocates of democracy in the world, despite the long history of democracy in these countries. Holding elections, having the right to vote and participating in election is still a challenge in Middle Eastern countries. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, however, the rate of participation in elections is high. The first election in the Islamic Republic of Iran was held only 45 days after the victory of Islamic Republic, which marks the shortest gap between the victory of a revolution and organization of a vote in the history.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has introduced a model of government based on religious democracy, the main elements of which are people and religion. Nowadays this model is competing with Western democratic systems.  Although Iran is still the target of propaganda and plots of enemies 38 years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the comparison between the rate of voter turnout in different elections in Iran with countries that advocate democracy shows that Iranian people are more enthusiastic for political participation. Furthermore, the below statistics illustrates the fact that despite the distorted reflection of religious democracy and freedom in political participation in Iran, religious democracy in the Islamic Republic is far more superior to the manipulated and distorted democracy in the United States and certain European countries.
Table: voter turnout in presidential election in Western countries


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Table: voter turnout in presidential election in Islamic republic of Iran

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