Iranian media reported on Tuesday that protests against the government have erupted across Iran due to frequent power shortage. The report said there were protest rallies in several cities, including the capital Tehran with people demanding the immediate resignation of the energy minister.
Since the weekend, there has been power outage nationwide for hours at a time and occurring several times a day in some cities. Hospitals and doctors’ offices are severely affected by the outages, which is life-threatening for elderly people who get stuck in lifts without power generators.
An international online chess tournament had to be cancelled because of a power failure and four Iranian hopefuls were eliminated afterwards. People are demanding at least precise information from the energy ministry on where, when and for how long there will be no electricity but details could not be provided so far.
The authorities said the high temperatures in the summertime between 35 to 50 degrees and the use of too many air conditioners. Many people do not accept this, however, as it usually hot in the summer in Iran and there has nevertheless been electricity.
On social media, people wondered how such power cuts could occur in a country with so many oil and gas reserves and nuclear energy. [NAN]
