Iran under a conservative president still needs the JCPOA

Ebrahim Raisi may have criticised the nuclear deal in the past but as president, he will have to abide by it.

The low turnout in the recent Iranian presidential election is sounding alarm bells for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who repeatedly asked the electorate to go to polling stations as a show of defiance against foreign powers, especially the United States, which is often dubbed the Great Satan in Iranian political vocabulary. But with a participation rate of less than 50 percent, the lowest in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, no such heroics can be claimed. Instead, President-elect Ebrahim Raisi will hold the unenviable record of receiving the lowest popular vote for any president in Iran since 1979. His is a hollow victory that does not generate political legitimacy for the Iranian regime. For more than 50 percent of the electorate, the Islamic regime has been a failure and a source of entrenched misery. High inflation, economic stagnation, unemployment, nepotism and the absence of avenues for cultural and political expression have driven the population to the brink. The mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, which made Iran a regional source of infection in 2020, was the last straw.