General Elections, 1 March 2024

Floods, February-March 2024  

Starting 27 February 2024 heavy rainfall, strong winds, thunderstorms and flash flooding wreaked havoc across Iran’s eastern provinces (ECHO, 2024). Kuzestan, Lorestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad were all provinces which received red flash flood warnings from the Iranian Meteorological Organization with 15 others receiving orange warnings (Iran Wire, 2024). After weeks of continuous floods in eastern Iran, 110 roads were blocked resulting in the isolation of 46 villages and 31 villages also facing water shortages (Iran International Newsroom, 2024; Iran Wire, 2024).  

By 6 March 2024 the flood had impacted 63,343 people and destroyed 300 homes damaging 3,100 others (Iran International Newsroom, 2024; IFRC, 2024). Following the flooding, the Iranian government was accused of having an inadequate governmental aid response as citizens blamed the government of abandoning flood victims at the expense of a political agenda  (Iran International Newsroom, 2024).  

The perpetual rainfall was largely triggered by the El Niño event, however, studies by the World Weather Attribution find that human induced climate-change may be the cause of the increased rainfall in Iran (WWA , 2023; WWA, 2024).   

Impact on electoral processes   

Iranian Parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections were held on 1 March 2024 (Reuters 2024). Elections were held in difficult flood conditions in Chahahar rural and urban electoral districts located in Sistan and Baluchistan province. In a statement reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency, the deputy major mentions that vehicles, boats and helicopters will be used to facilitate voter participation (IRNA, 2024).  

There were reports of public outrage in response to elections being prioritized above rescue and relief efforts in flood-affected areas (Iran International Newsroom, 2024) 

Voter turnout   

1 March 2024 marked Iran’s 12^th parliamentary election since the 1979 revolution. This year’s parliamentary election had the lowest voter turnout rate of 40.64% in Iran's democratic history. Compared to the last parliamentary election in 2020 which had a voter turnout of 42.32%, the voter turnout in the 2024 election decreased by 2.32% (International IDEA, n.d.; Crisis Group, 2024).