‘It’s irrelevant’: Iran’s record low election

Allowing a reformist candidate to run has not arrested a long-term decline in participation

If Tehran is holding its breath, it is not because of political tensions, but the smog that envelopes the traffic-clogged capital in summertime.

Ahead of Friday’s presidential runoff between hardliner Saeed Jalili and the reformist Masoud Pezeskhian – an election that has the potential to put Iran back on course to engage with the west– members of the young middle class sitting in Tehran’s Cafe Elie compete to express their disdain for the political process.