Pars Today

In many countries which claim be democratic, the bond between the people and the officials is not deep and kindly; while this is one of the foundations of legitimacy of the system and a sign of real popular rule.

One of the indices of popular rule in Iran after the Islamic Revolution has been the maximal participation of people in elections as it is manifested in the form of elections. After the revolution, almost every year an election has been held which is quite unprecedented in the world. Thus, the average participation of the Iranian nation is far more than many countries which masquerade as flag-bearers of democracy. Most of the government systems in the world are in one of the two forms; parliamentarian or authoritarian. But the Islamic Iran introduced a novel form of government in which from the highest to the lowest segment of the government is determined by people's vote either directly or indirectly. In many countries the rate of popular participation in elections is not considerable despite long record of election in them. Moreover, in recent years, due to political and economic crises in western countries, the rate of participation has plummeted dramatically. For instance, half of the population has not taken part in the presidential elections during the past century. This rate has been 30-40% for the Congressional election. In France, the rate of participation for parliamentary election has been maximum 60%. In most of the rounds this figure was below 50%. This is while in all of the parliamentary elections of the past 40 years, the rate of participation was averagely between 51-71%. In a number of West Asian countries, which are US allies, no election has ever been held, the most flagrant of which is the Saudi regime.

The Islamic Republic of Iran introduced a new pattern of true democratic governance to the world people. The 4-decade experience of the Islamic Republic system proves that this system, only through reliance on the internal power, succeeded to build legitimate popular infrastructures to turn into the pole of true democratic rule and pioneer of election-based governance in the world. This genuine source of power and might has guaranteed the legality of the Islamic system and immunized it against the enemies who have targeted the national sovereignty, territorial integrity, dignity and independence of the nation. Ayatollah Khamenei makes it clear that: "In the pattern of the Islamic Republic, not only popular rule and religion are not separate from each other; but popular rule stems from religion."

The popular rule in Iran is an obvious example of democracy which can be presented to the regional nations and the global arena. Adel al-Mane', editor-in-chief of the Iraqi daily al-Siyasah wrote, "The growth and thriving of democracy in Iran has scared the Arab regimes of the Persian Gulf region and urged them to confront it."

The constituents of democracy have been internalized in the Islamic Republic; whereas, in many of the West Asian countries, either no election is held or the fabric of the ruling system has been shaped in a way that the role of people is ceremonial even if an election is held. In Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan and the like, the king functions as a dictator and people don't have the right of even criticizing the ruling system let alone dethroning him and changing the ruling system.

The tribal regimes in the Persian Gulf and North Africa deem no role for the people and link to such and such royal family is the only criterion for gaining legitimacy and legality to join the hierarchy power. The Islamic Republic of Iran, however, has been the target of poisonous propaganda by the front of Arrogance, and this wave of ballyhoo has been aggravated throughout the 40 years of the life of the Islamic Revolution. In view of this, it is not an exaggeration to say that the religious popular rule in Iran has turned into an unmatched model for the people of the region and the world.

RM/MG