The clerical regime has usurped the popular sovereignty of the Iranian people which is their most critical right.
According to the first article of the NCRI’s platform, the provisional government, which has resulted from resistance, is “essentially tasked with transferring power to the Iranian people.”

Transitional period

This duty shall be fulfilled at the end of a maximum 6-month period after the clerical regime’s overthrow by forming the “National Constituent and Legislative Assembly” through free and popular elections, with direct, equal and secret ballots cast by the people of Iran.
As soon as the “National Constituent and Legislative Assembly” has been formed and expresses readiness to undertake and fulfill its responsibilities and obligations, the provisional government shall hand over its resignation to the assembly.

The power and sovereignty belongs to the Iranian people’s republic.

The sole yardstick and criterion is the free, equal and secret suffrage of the people of Iran.(1)

The NCRI is duty-bound to transfer sovereignty to the people of Iran. The NCRI platform recognizes the people’s right to decide their own destiny. It has declared that “achieving people’s sovereignty… is the most precious outcome of the Iranian people’s just Resistance.” the prerequisite for popular sovereignty is “the provision and guaranteeing of the means, resources, and methods for the involvement and participation of all the citizens in decision making and execution.”
In fact, the motivating spirit of the NCRI Platform, the essence of its adopted plans, and the content of its most important statements and declarations, are in a word summed up in the principle of the people’s sovereignty in place of the sovereignty of the Shah or the mullahs.(2)

Free elections

Our constitution is based on freedom, democracy and equality. We are determined to build a free and democratic society.
A century ago, the Mojahedin of the Constitutional Movement sought to realize “justice, freedom, equality and unity.” Afterwards, the great nationalist leader of Iran, Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq, rose up and proclaimed, “The goal is to facilitate the participation of people in all respects and to empower them to run the country’s affairs.”

Subsequently, the Fedayeen and the PMOI and other vanguard activists opened the path to overthrowing the Shah’s dictatorship.
And now, our Resistance – with a galaxy of fallen heroes and heroines from Ashraf Rajavi and Moussa Khiabani to Sedigheh Mojaveri and Neda Hassani to Zohreh Ghaemi and Giti Givechian – has arisen to ensure freedom of choice for each and every one of our fellow citizens in Iran.
We have rejected the ruling tyrannical regime. We have rejected a religion based on compulsion and misogyny. And we have rejected the Constitution of the Velayat-e faqih.

Our Constitution is freedom, democracy and equality.

Our Constitution has not been drafted by the Assembly of Experts, which is a collection of criminals.
Today, our Constitution remains engraved in the hearts of each and every Iranian. And, tomorrow, it will be drafted by elected representatives of the Iranian people in a Constituent Assembly.
This Constitution is founded on a free, tolerant and progressive republic. It rests on pluralism, separation of religion and state, women’s equality and the active and equal participation of women in political leadership.
We believe in equal rights for all ethnic groups and religious minorities and a society devoid of torture and executions.(3)

We have said since the onset, and we repeat, that as soon as the mullahs hold a free election, provided that it is supervised by the UN, we will immediately accept it and there would be no reason for continuing our resistance.(4)

The Iranian Resistance has declared that free elections form the yardstick of its moves and the criterion upon which it bases its relations, including with the clerical regime. By free elections, we mean elections that are based on the principle of sovereignty of the people and not the velayat-e faqih or the mullahs’ hegemony as stipulated in their Constitution.
We have time and again declared that we welcome a free election in Iran supervised by the UN or any other competent international agency.(5)

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1-Excerpted from the speech to the National Convention of Iranian in Paris on the anniversary of the Iranian people’s anti-monarchic revolution, February 8, 2014.
2-Excerpted from the speech to the three-day session of the National Council of Resistance of Iran on the 40th anniversary of its foundation, July 23-26, 2020
3-Excerpted from the speech to the grand gathering of the Iranian Resistance in Paris, June 13, 2015
4-Excerpted from the speech on July 3, 2003
5-Excerpted from the speech to the grand gathering of Iranian at the Auvers-sur-Oise stadium, June 17, 2004