This article was last updated on May 25, 2022
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‘All elections have been free’
Iran’s Supreme Leader has criticised the voices calling for free election in the country’s upcoming presidential election.
Speaking before thousands in the holy city of Qom, Ali Khameneiwarned those calling for free presidential elections in June 2013 not to end up “helping the enemy” with their actions.
“Those who issue recommendations about the election must be cautious not to [unintentionally] aid the enemy. They shouldn’t state constantly that the elections must be free. We’ve had 34 elections since the [1979] revolution. Which one has been unfree?”
According to the semi-official Isna news agency, Khamenei added, “It is clear that the elections should be free … In which country are elections as free as in Iran? Be careful so that your remarks don’t shatter the people’s hopes in the elections.”
The 73-year-old’s recent comments in Qom appear to be in response to calls by senior reformist figures for free and fair elections in June.
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council, has described the country’s situation as “critical” and has called for “competitive” and free elections based on the rule of law.
“In this critical period, when the country is facing threats and sanctions from the enemies of the revolution, contention and disputes are by no means the solution. We hope that everyone, … from ordinary people to the highest levels [of leadership], embraces dialogue, cooperation and understanding in order to pave the way for competitive elections in accordance with the law.”
In a recent meeting with convention organisers, former President Mohammad Khatami said that the status quo “cannot ensure that proper elections will be held.”
“At a time when the reformists’ right to hold their congress and gatherings is still in question, how can one hope to see a significant participation on the part of the various political factions?” Khatami asked.
Critics of Iran’s electoral system argue that the Guardian Council’s ruthless vetting process virtually precludes fair and free elections from taking place.
In a recent statement published by Norooz news, prominent reformist figure Mostafa Tajzadeh, who is currently serving a six-year jail term in solitary confinement in Evin Prison, voiced similar sentiments about the forthcoming elections.
The 56-year-old believes that the “activities” of ultra-conservative cleric Mesbah Yazdi, Guardian Council chairman Ahmad Jannati and the commander of the Revolutionary Guards Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, could only mean that “another electoral coup d’état” is looming, one similar to the monumental fraud that overshadowed the previous presidential race.
During his Tuesday speech, Khamenei claimed that monitoring of candidates was not limited to Iran. “In which country are the candidates’ credentials not reviewed? Why do you stress this issue and try to engrave this thought in people’s minds that their participating in the elections is inconsequential.”
The upcoming presidential elections are scheduled to be held on 14 June 2013.
In an interview with Isna, Khamenei’s representative in the Revolutionary Guards, cleric Ali Saeedi, said that it was the duty of Iran’s elite fighting force to “engineer” the elections in a “reasonable and logical” way. He claimed that this was different from interfering in the electoral process.
The only way for the reformists to the political scene, according to Saeedi, was to “announce that they have moved away from the ideals [of the revolutions] and that they have wronged.”
He said that those behind the “sedition,” must “accept all the frameworks” put forth by the regime. “The reformists are caught in a serious paradox. On one hand, their entry [into the political stage] means accepting some of their wrongdoings. But on the other hand, should they return, they will be rejected by those calling for toppling [the regime].”
“Sedition” is the epithet widely used by the ruling elite to describe the massive protests that erupted following the June 2009 presidential election.
Mir Hossen Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the two reformists candidates in those elections, refused to accept the announced results and accused the election officials of having orchestrated a monumental fraud aimed at ensuring the re-election of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The pair spearheaded the opposition Green Movement that erupted in the aftermath of the rigged elections until February 2011 when they were placed under an illegal house arrest along with their wives.*
Reacting to recent remarks by Habibollah Asgaroladi, Secretary-General of the Islamic Coalition Party, Saeedi said that Mousavi and Karroubi had turned an “opportunity” for the regime into a “threat” through their opposition in 2009. “They stood against the establishment. How can they not be seditionists? How can certain people make such comments?”
In December, Asgaroladi said that he did not regard Mousavi and Karroubi as seditionists.
“I wanted them to come to their senses and accept the fact that devils have created a distance between us and them. They will be met with the open arms of the Islamic Republic and the system… whenever they return, provided that they disapprove of the evil act of sowing discord among the people and keep a distance from devils, spearheaded by the United States,” Asgaroladi had said.
Note:
* Karroubi’s wife Fatemeh was later released from house arrest. However, Mousavi’s wife Zahra Rahnavard, a renowned women’s rights activist and university professor, is still in captivity.
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