Ayatollah Khamenei Claims Virus Scare Aimed to Keep Voters at Home

As the world searches for answers and antidotes for the coronavirus, Iran’s Supreme Ruler has made it simple: word of the growing threat spreading through Iranian media was intended to keep voters home in order to skew the results of Iran’s election. The Ayatollah was apparently embarrassed by the low voter turnout: the lowest (45%) since the revolution in 1979. He posted on his website that, “This negative propaganda about the virus began a couple of months ago and grew larger ahead of the election… media did not miss the tiniest opportunity for dissuading Iranian voters and resorting to the excuse of disease and the virus.” On February 21, Iranians voted for 290 seats in the parliament, the results of which are seen as a barometer of how the regime fares with its constituents.