I have a humble request for those who said we should boycott the election, I did a search on the net (You might want to try it yourself and see) about "result for boycotting national elections around the world in 20th century", I did it again for 21st century, I got 171 hits in which results indicated that in all of them the consequences were completely against those who abandoned them.
Inaction never brings action. Enfeaal hargez bAe's e fe'el nemishavd.
I totally agree Mr. A that boycott was not a good idea and inaction never brings action. But if all the people that voted for Rohani out of spite for the regime handed in a blank ballot, or put the name of a candidate they wanted (one not approved by GC), they not only would have taken action, but made their point and stand very clear. Only 300,000 more blank votes would have forced the regime into an unwanted run-off. If half the people who voted for Rohani did so out of spite, 11 million blank or invalid votes would have been more than any of the IR candidates received. And 18 Million blank/invalid votes would have put the IR in a state of perpetual stalemate, the only way out of which would have been to blatantly cheat like they did last time, causing the major fractures and infighting that we see until today.
Helping to strengthen the regime both domestically and internationally with a high turnout and putting a stamp of approval on one of its candidates was the worst possible outcome for this election. None of the other 5 candidates (with the exception of Rezaei perhaps) could have "moderated" the situation the way Rohani will. If the aim of Iranians is to have a free and democratic society, a healthy economy, lower corruption, higher standards of living, etc., the only way to achieve that is outside the framework of the Islamic Republic and anything that shortens the tenure of that system is one step closer to achieving that goal - anything that helps strengthen it is one step in the wrong direction. On that note I would take people like AN, Jalili, Gharazi, Velayati and Qalibaf over the likes of Rohani and Khatami any day.
Ultimately, Iranians have been very isolated and brainwashed for generations to the point where their political behaviour has become instinctive rather than intelligent, short-sighted rather than right-minded, and reflective rather than pro-active. Instinctive in the same sense that a Buffalo runs from a powerful lioness happy that it survived the day - intelligent is when the Buffalo realizes that he will find himself in the same situation tomorrow and decides to put up a fight today (and we have all seen what happens in those situations in nature shows). Short-sighted in the same sense that a mother would put an air mask in a depressurized cabin on her child first, not realizing that she won't have the strength in a few seconds to hold that mask. Right minded in this situation would be the realization that we have been wasting many generations of young Iranians, and wasting the future of many generations to come, by taking an action that gives us immediate gratitude but eternal suffocation. And reflective in the sense that we always compare the current status quo with the situation of 14 years ago under Khatami or 40 years ago under the Shah, rather than outlining where we need to be as a nation 15 years from now.
Our friends may say that we don't have a good grasp of the Iranian psyche, but I think what they forget is that human psyche is more or less the same. We actually have the luxury of looking at this objectively, from the outside of the box if you will, and compare our situation to many other people in the world. The population in Iran has been inside that box for so long that they do not see anything beyond it. They're no longer that Little Black Fish that thinks and dreams about life beyond the boundaries of that stale pond, but that frog who said I've lived long enough to know that the world is this pond - mind your own business and don't lead my children astray!