TEHRAN -- The Islamic Republic of Iran has the strongest democracy in the West Asia region and Iranians determine the destiny of their country solely by participating in various elections, a political analyst says.
Sam Mahdi Torabi, the director of the Resalat Strategic Studies Institute of Qom, made the comments during Press TV’s The Debate program, which was aired on Friday night.
Iran is “the only country in the region where people matter at every level of governance, beginning from the supreme leadership all the way down to the local level. It is people who decide who runs the country and what policies are made for the future,” Torabi said.
“The whole Islamic republic is based on the participation of the people. … On all levels, the destiny of the country is determined by the vote of the people,” he said.
Torabi also said that enemies of Iran do not care who comes to power in the Islamic Republic as the president of the country. “The important thing to them is that whoever comes to power [in Iran] is put under pressure.”
Foad Izadi, a political analyst and university professor, also from Iran, said at Press TV’s The Debate program that Iran’s enemies wanted to delegitimize Iran’s elections and the reason behind such policy is that “they want to pressure Iranian people.”
“By questioning the legitimacy of Iran’s elections, they can follow that policy,” he noted.
People around the world “realize that majority of Iranians trust the system of government in Iran that they go and stand in polls, sometimes for hours, to cast their ballots. This shows that the government has the legitimacy,” Izadi added.
Iran held its 13th presidential election on Friday. In parallel, the participants also voted in City and Village Councils mid-term Assembly of Experts and parliamentary elections.