“…Regarding the electoral procedure, the ballot is candidate-based (Zaccara, 2012) and public support on the nominated candidates is rather circumstantial and not ideological (Ehteshami and Zaccara, 2013). These peculiarities in the Iranian system accounting for "limited level of pluralism", "low electoral integrity" and "inexistence of governmental alternation" better positioning the political regime under the notion of "hegemonic pluralist authoritarianism" (Szmolka, 2017).…”