TEHRAN –Internet connections to some internet sites are absolutely disrupted and couldn’t primarily any information be obtained. There is also almost no access to outside country phone lines.

In an apparent attempt to make voting difficult, the government has reduced the numbers of polling stations available and made access to those stations more difficult. 

A reporter observed polling stations from Tehran-no, Nezamabad, Vahidiyeh, Tehran-Pars to Imam Hossein Square. 

Though there were many candidates and races, the number of polling stations throughout the city were reduced. 

In previous elections, between Tehran-no and Tehran-Pars to Imam Hossein Square, there were about 40 to 50 polling stations. In this round, there are about 15 to 17 open. At each station there are fewer ballot boxes, adding to the lines.

Each station had extremely long lines when they were observed, which seem to be discouraging voters. 

In 45 minutes at one of the main stations in Imam Hossein Square, less than five people approached to the station for voting.

The polling stations are located in schools and mosques, seemingly chosen to show a crowd of people from one ballot box to the next – when somebody looks from far away.  

The design of these stations also discourage shooting video or taking photos  from out side, as they have opened the doors from the secondary points .

In empty stations beside the others, officials filling out ballots, not voters.

——- 22:00

 Meidan-e Haft Hose – Narmak Region

3 police officers were there outside of their vehicle. Two security police carswere there as well. A number of militia personnel were around too. It was giving the indication that they are transporting people from other places to vote in this location. the crowd were around 50 people standing in line.

The government is bringing a number of journalists to places that has a camera. There was only one journalist there. 

——- 20:00

A deputy of the National Organization for Civil Registration in Iran said on Friday that for casting a vote there is no need for the voter to have their National Identification Cards with them. He said it is enough to remember their National Identification number.

He even went as far as saying: “those citizens who do not have the national ID with them or do not remember its number could go to any local offices of National Organization for Civil Registration in their residence area or receive the number by phone.”

He added: ” the National Organization for Civil Registration stays open until the voting ends.”

The Interior Ministry previously had announced that for casting a vote birth certificate and National ID is required.

Allowing to vote without the required document seems to be a part of “election engineering” plan by Ali Khamenei.

The Iranian regime that has been faced with an all-out boycott of election by the people is trying to carry out widespread election fraud.

——- 17:45

Several Basijis and intelligence agents were taken by buses to polling stations in Karaj to stay in queue as voters and pretend there has been a huge turnout; after a short while foreign reporters were taken to those stations for preparing reports on the election.

Before reporters arrive at Haft Hows square in Narmak district of Tehran, about 50 agents were taken there to pretend that polling station was crowded. All other nearby stations were quite empty.

At Bentol-Hoda polling station in Ilam (western Iran) votes were purchased 10,000 tomans each to be casted in the name of a certain candidate. In another station, the votes of the illiterate were openly changed in favor of another candidate.

——- 15:00

At a polling station in Tehran’s 19th district, the only people present were 25 election staff and members of the security forces.

And in various districts of Tehran, electronic voting equipment suffered technical problems, with experts only able to keep 60 per cent of the system functioning, meaning they could not transfer data from a local headquarters to the Ministry of Interior.

——- 14:50

See Video of a polling station in the city of Shiraz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oHiWmF2-tc&feature=player_detailpage

——- 14:45

Iran’s polling stations have remained empty throughout the day as the prospect looms of a mass boycott of the presidential election.

The regime is desperate for a high turnout but six hours after the voting began, many ballot boxes remained almost empty across the country.

Rulers have even resorted to holdingcity council elections on the same day – a voting process which takes much longer as electors in Tehran must write down names of 31 city council members. Officials then force anyone voting for their city council to first cast vote their vote for a new president.

——- 13:00

Ministry of Guidance official said over 205 foreign  journalist working for 90 news outlets from 30 countries have entered the country to cover election.  Mohammad Naser Haqiqat said therefore the number of total reporters local and foreign has reached to 450.

——- 12:33

‘Our vote is the downfall of the entire regime,’ displayed on a Oil Ministry Website

One of the Websites of the regime’s Oil Ministry was hacked and the following mottos were written on the page:

Down with criminal Khamenei and Khomeinism 

This election is corrupt and it will be boycotted

Our vote is the downfall of the entire Iranian regime

Hail to freedom

Iran Ahvaz Election 14 June 2013

——- 12:30

The security forces have taken the city of Babak under control in fear of public protest.

Basij forces in the city of Abadan played music and distributed juice and sweets among people last night begging them to participate in the elections.

Yesterday there was discussion about the election among the people standing in queues. Majority of the people mocked the election and said that the election will only make this line longer. 

The election atmosphere is very quiet in the city of Ahvaz. People have a lot of economic problems and no one cares for the election. No one votes for the presidential elections. Only a few polling stations are active for the election of the city council in which are also mocked by the people in Ahvaz.

——- 11:50

A high election turnout will be a victory over the world’s hostility to Iran, regime MP Mohammad Ismail-nia has claimed.

His plea for people to vote comes amid fears within the ruling elite that poor attendance at the ballot boxes will undermine the legitimacy of the regime.

Ismail-nia told the state-run INSA news agency: “One of the solutions to the country’s problems is the highest possible turnout in the elections. The higher it is, the more it will disarm the enemy.

“Several thousand media networks are highly active in their opposition to us. If we want to become successful, people must prove that these sanctions are insubstantial by participating in the elections.

The MP for the city of Mashhad said every vote meant ‘one more bullet in the target’, and added: “When the enemy sees that despite its pressure and however it attacks us, there will be no effect.

“We need this high turnout more than ever before to ensure we disappoint the enemy. People’s participation in the election will change the balance of the world’s aggression.”

——- 10:42

The picture below shows the list of the candidates that has been sent by the Interior Ministry to all polling stations.  The list is presented to voters to choose the candidate.

The name of Gholam-ali Hadad Adel is stroked through and the name of Mohammad Reza Aref still remains on the list of candidates who can be voted for – despite his withdrawal from the election.

The supervisors next to the ballots are told not to cross out the name so a doubt is created among the voters that he still runs as a candidate. The votes casted for him would be considered invalid.

——- 10:15

Report from Tehran: “Many people that I have been talking to to people in Tehran, in shops, in streets, in city buses in past few days. they said they would not vote because nothing would change. The inflation and etc will continue.”

——- 9:55

Polling stations set up in universities 

The list of several universities in Tehran and other cities across the country that have turned into polling stations for the presidential elections has been annonced.

The following universities in Tehran are having polling stations: Iran University of Science & Technology (IUST), K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Alzahra University, Sharif University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Allameh Tabatabaii University, Beheshti University and Kharazmi University have become a polling station.

In this election for the first time the Guardian Council and the Interior Ministry have assigned some people claimed to be students to supervise the ballot boxes.

——- 9:42

Urgent instructions for the elections announced on state television

The Election Headquarters has announced in its second statement that from now on it will give its statements through the state television and implementation of every instruction given is obligatory.

The Election Headquarters emphasized members of the registration polls and ballot boxes in its second statement that each station must have a radio and television on at all times in order to receive the urgent instructions issued by the Election Headquarters which will be announced through the state television.

——- 9:38

Four hours has passed from the start of voting but the polling stations are deserted

Based on the reports by the Social Headquarters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in Tehran and cities across the country including Isfahan, Ahwaz, Kerman, Ardebil, Bojnourd, Shiraz, Karaj… four hours after the start of voting all the polling stations are deserted.

The Social Headquarter of the PMOI (MEK) has been monitoring more than 10,000 polling stations across Iran since early hours today.

2,000 of the polling stations are in Tehran and the rest in cities and towns across Iran.

The PMOI’s Social Headquarters will continue to publish news and information on the Iranian regime’s election received from its sources within the Iranian regime’s electoral bodies.

——- 8:20

On Thursday evening, the Iranian regime positioned Special Forces on the streets around the Interior Ministry and Fatemieh Square.

Last night around 8 p.m. local time several buses carrying Revolutionary Guards and several patrols of the Special Forces based on the streets around Fatemieh Square and the Interior Ministry building.

The Special Forces were preparing for duty, getting armed and wearing bullet proof jackets.

The buses comprising of the Revolutionary forces also positioned in intersection of Karegar a couple of blocks ahead.

A widespread arrange of security forces could also be seen around Fatemieh Square. A number of the patrol forces also stationed near Nour Mosque.