The Washington Post - 22.02.2020

A12 eZ re the washington post.saturday, february 22 , 2020

BY ERIN CUNNINGHAM

ISTANBUL — Iranians voted to
elect a new parliament Friday in
polls expected to favor conserva-
tives, amid a sweeping purge of
moderate candidates from t he b al-
lot and as multiple crises flared at
home.
State television aired images
Friday of v oters lined up a t polling
stations, and Iran’s supreme lead-
er, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, cast-
ing his ballot in Te hran, urged
Iranians to participate in the elec-
tion — the 1 1th parliamentary v ote
since the Islamic revolution in
197 9.
Hard-line factions allied with
Khamenei are expected to win a
majority in parliament, a victory
that could politically cripple the
more moderate president, Hassan
Rouhani, a s tensions s immer with

the United States.

Rouhani is under fire from

hard-line conservatives who have

criticized his push for e ngagement

with the West, including a 2015

nuclear deal that Iran negotiated

with world powers, among them

the U nited States. It w as once R ou-

hani’s signature foreign policy

achievement, but President

Trump withdrew from the deal in

2018 and reimposed harsh eco-

nomic sanctions.

“A nyone who cares about the

national interest should partici-

pate in elections,” Khamenei said

Friday, adding that people should

“vote as early as possible” before

polls c lose.

The push for higher turnout,

including from Iran’s Islamic Rev-

olutionary Guard Corps, a power-

ful security branch, came as ex-

perts warned of voter apathy fol-

lowing the disqualification of

thousands of candidates by the

influential Guardian Council,

which i s appointed by Khamenei.

Low voter turnout would un-

dermine the government’s legiti-

macy a nd s uggest w idespread dis-

illusionment with the Islamic Re-

public. Iran’s clerics hold ultimate

power but allow for competitive

elections for parliament and the

presidency.

About 20 percent of Iran’s eligi-

ble voters had cast ballots by

3 p.m. Tehran time, according to

the Iranian Students’ News Agen-

cy. In 30 of Iran’s 31 provinces,

voting was extended until 8 p.m.,

state media reported.

The elections were also marred

by fears stemming from a sudden

rise in the number of coronavirus

cases in Iran, including in Te hran

and t he holy c ity of Q om.

An extended family reached

Friday by t elephone in Te hran said

they had stayed away from the

polls to avoid getting sick. Others

said they were fed up with the

political system and the ruling

elite.

“I do n ot want to vote. For years,

we haven’t been able to make the

slightest difference in this coun-

try,” said 38-year-old Mahshid, a

resident o f Karaj, a Tehran suburb.

She declined to give her full name

out of fear of reprisal by security

forces.

Ahead of the polls, the Guard-

ian Council barred many moder-

ate and pro-reform politicians, in-

cluding incumbent lawmakers,

from running. The accusations in-

cluded vague charges of “financial

and moral corruption,” and an

umbrella group of reformist lead-

ers said it would not field candi-

dates in Te hran to protest the dis-

qualifications.

The council said about 7,

candidates were competing Fri-

day for 290 seats.

Iran’s previous parliament was

elected in 2016, when the United

States w as lifting s anctions as part

of the nuclear deal, and many Ira-

nians believed they were emerg-

ing from international isolation.

It was dominated by a bloc of

reformists, moderates and other

centrist candidates generally

aligned with Rouhani a nd his gov-

ernment.

The body drafts legislation and

approves the national budget.

While ultimate power lies with

Iran’s ruling clerics, the parlia-

ment can help or h amper t he pres-

ident’s agenda. The chamber has

done little, however, to address the

demands of Iranians f rustrated by

rising costs, high unemployment

and an increasingly repressive se-

curity apparatus.

For 32-year-old Shideh, a mar-

keting researcher and undecided

voter in Te hran, the r estrictions on

candidates suggested there would

be “no true election and very little

chance o f making c hange.”

She spoke on the condition of

anonymity so she could speak

freely about her political views.

Haleh, an engineer and resi-

dent of Tehran, said she was boy-

cotting t he vote.

“This regime has taken every

right away from us,” she said, add-

ing that her d ecision to v ote or not

was the last bit of political power

she h ad.

“A nd I can do whatever I want

with it, so I am boycotting the

elections,” s he s aid.

[email protected]

Iranians cast votes in parliamentary election purged of moderate candidates

I slam c an be p art of G ermany — has

contributed t o the c urrent climate.

“The AfD is a product of... an

accumulation of many things that

went wrong,” he said. “Everyone

has to question whether one’s ac-

tions perhaps stoked hatred.”

Friends of victims assembled in

front of the Midnight hookah bar

on Friday, lighting candles placed

at the edges of the police cordon.

Among those gathered was L event

Güldag, 43, who voiced frustra-

tion about whether people like

him will ever truly be accepted in

Germany.

“I was b orn here. I grew up h ere.

I have a German wife. I have three

children,” he said. “There’s noth-

ing more I can do to assimilate. I

can’t color my hair so that I look

more German, m ore Aryan.”

His 20-year-old son, he said,

had lost one of his best friends in

the s hooting. In t he tightknit com-

munity, many young residents

knew at least one of the victims

personally.

Seehofer said the Interior Min-

istry is doing what it can to pre-

vent attacks. He pointed to the

arrest last week of 12 people sus-

pected of belonging to a far-right

group plotting against targets as-

sociated with Muslims and asy-

lum seekers. He said authorities

had found an “unbelievably large

number of grenades and explo-

sives” i n raids in recent days.

He said the government is also

looking at h ow to thwart lone-wolf

attacks, like t he o nes i n Hanau a nd

in Halle.

Only half of t hose who carry o ut

right-wing and anti-Semitic

crimes are known to security ser-

vices beforehand, Holger Münch,

president of Germany’s Federal

Criminal Police Office, said Friday.

“That means we have to dig

deeper into the structures,” he

said.

Aiman Mazyek, secretary gen-

eral of t he C entral Council o f Mus-

lims in Germany, said the lack of

focus on the right wing was an

error that r an through the s ecurity

structure.

“The focus was on so-called Is-

lamic terrorism and Islamic ex-

tremism,” he said. “We always de-

manded that other forms of ex-

tremism or hatred has to be ad-

dressed with the same i ntensity.”

In addition to railing against

immigration, Rathjen’s online

writing i ncludes a mix of c onfused

conspiratorial theories and warn-

ings about s upposed mind control

and s ecret societies.

“One has to take note that such

a terrible bloody act does not arise

out of nothing,” Justice Minister

Christine Lambrecht said. “Con-

spiracy t heories, as o bviously held

by the perpetrator, are the breed-

ing g round for hatred.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Morris and beck reported from berlin.

BY RICK NOACK,

LOVEDAY MORRIS

AND LUISA BECK

HANAU, GermANy — Ripped by
grief and brimming with anger,
the message from minority com-
munities hit by Germany’s latest
far-right attack was clear: More
must be done to address the coun-
try’s extremist scourge.
German Interior Minister Horst
Seehofer on F riday p ledged a bigger
police presence, particularly at vul-
nerable sites such as mosques, fol-
lowing the mass shootings that tar-
geted hookah cafes in the town of
Hanau. Nine people were killed in
those attacks on Wednesday, with
the 4 3-year-old gunman, Tobias
Rathjen, later found dead alongside
his m other a t home.
“A trail of blood of right-wing
extremism g oes t hrough o ur coun-
try to this day,” Seehofer said, de-
scribing it as “the greatest s ecurity
threat” t o the country.
Muslim a nd Kurdish communi-
ty leaders complained that the
awakening has come too slowly,
with security agencies long dis-
tracted by the threat of Islamist
extremism.
Minorities in Germany have

watched with concern as the far

right has established a foothold in

mainstream politics. The un-

abashedly anti-immigrant Alter-

native f or Germany, o r AfD, is n ow

the largest opposition party in the

federal parliament and has fared

well in regional elections, capital-

izing on friction around Chancel-

lor Angela Merkel’s decision to

welcome m ore t han a million refu-

gees in 2015.

Germany also has seen a spike

in violence linked to the far right.

Wednesday night’s was the third

deadly attack in less than a year,

after a politician fatally was shot

in June and a gunman attacked a

synagogue in Halle in October,

killing two.

Minority groups are calling not

just for more protection, but also

for the country to confront anti-

immigrant, Islamophobic and

a nti-Semitic attitudes.

“We’re very sad about what hap-

pened, but also very angry,” said

Leyla Acar, co-chairwoman of Kon-

Med, an association of Kurds in

Germany, adding that at least five

of Wednesday’s shooting victims

were Kurdish. “What are the politi-

cians doing? They always say they

are against racism, right-wing

Minorities decry inaction

on Germany’s far right

e xtremism, but what do they do?”

In Hanau — a small yet diverse

city where many residents either

were born abroad or are the chil-

dren of migrants — Mayor Claus

Kaminsky called for unity among

his shaken constituents.

“Our city has just gone through

its grimmest hours in peacetime,”

he said Friday.

“We know where racism and

hatred once led,” he added, refer-

ring to Nazi rule.

At an Islamic center a short

drive away from the Midnight

hookah bar, where Rathjen

opened fire at around 10 p.m. on

Wednesday night, Muslim com-

munity leader Khurrem Akhtar,

43, said that while most Germans

were not racist, he was worried

about the breakdown of red lines

in recent years.

“There’s an us-versus-them

mindset that can be felt some-

times,” he said. His community

was r esisting attempts to separate

them from the rest of German

society, he said. “We’re part o f Ger-

many, a nd w e’re part o f Hanau.”

It is the far right’s attempts to

cleave divisions that German secu-

rity officials say is of a particular

concern. But Akhtar said main-

stream political rhetoric — for in-

stance, debates about whether

Michael probst/associated press

Mourners hold photos Friday of victims of an anti-immigrant mass

shooting in Hanau, Germany, in which nine people were killed.

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