For sale on eBay: A vote in Iran’s presidential election

Just how disillusioned have ordinary Iranians become about Friday’s presidential election? Enough for one Iranian to sell his vote on eBay. Iranian authorities have vowed to avoid a repeat of the protests that spilled into Tehran’s streets and presented a powerful challenge to the ruling clerics following the country’s disputed 2009 election. Reformist candidates have ...

ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images
ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images
ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

Just how disillusioned have ordinary Iranians become about Friday's presidential election? Enough for one Iranian to sell his vote on eBay.

Just how disillusioned have ordinary Iranians become about Friday’s presidential election? Enough for one Iranian to sell his vote on eBay.

Iranian authorities have vowed to avoid a repeat of the protests that spilled into Tehran’s streets and presented a powerful challenge to the ruling clerics following the country’s disputed 2009 election. Reformist candidates have been barred from running, and only one candidate in this year’s field — Hassan Rowhani — has professed views that differ even mildly from the prevailing orthodoxy.

So starting at €99, a user named Khordad92 is offering to sell his vote — just as long as you don’t ask him to cast a ballot for the regime’s preferred candidate, Saeed Jalili, Iran’s hardline nuclear negotiator.

For a modest price, you too can be a part of history — and a rubber-stamp election.

(h/t: Saeed Kamali Dehghan

Twitter: @EliasGroll

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