Iranian elections … just don't mention the 'f' word

guardian.co.uk

Six months ahead of a vote that will end to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contentious presidency, talk of elections has already prompted top-level controversies in Tehran.

This week, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, asked officials not to make statements insinuating that previous elections were not free. The 73-year-old was speaking to a group of devout crowds from the holy city of Qom.

In his speech, Khamenei criticised senior politicians who have indirectly cast doubt on the fairness of Iran's electoral record.

The Islamic republic does not tolerate criticism of its election process and the two main opposition leaders who claimed the 2009 presidential vote was rigged, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, were put under house arrest. Officials critical of the election process, therefore, tend to express misgivings opaquely.

In recent months, a number of leading figures have said the presidential election in June would only be competitive and lively if it were to be held "freely".

Among the officials who are believed to be the target of Khamenei's stern warning is Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and one of the country's great political survivors. He presides over Iran's expediency council which mediates between the parliament and the guardian council, a body of clerics and jurists that vets candidates before any election.

In September, as public debate over the impact of international sanctions on Iran's economy escalated, Rafsanjani said holding "free elections" would bring the country out of its current stalemate and avert threats of war that have been looming over the Islamic republic.

"Holding elections that are free, transparent and in compliance with the constitution will solve a big part of the country's problems," he said. His comments have been echoed by other leading figures including the former reformist president Mohammad Khatami who have previously said that "free elections" would prevent international threats facing Iran.

In what is believed to be a response to remarks made by the likes of Rafanjani and Khatami, Khamenei said this week: "They should not discourage the nation, they should not insist on saying that elections are not free."

He warned the public against making "general recommendations" that would "serve the purpose of the enemy", adding: "We've held more than 30 elections since the [1979] Islamic revolution, which one was not free? In which country you can see elections freer than those held in Iran?"

Following the address, his representative in the Revolutionary Guards, Ali Saeedi, said the elite military force had "a responsibility to engineer a rational and logical elections". That triggered an immediate response by many Iranians on social networking websites who interpreted it as a sign of the guards' interference in the upcoming elections.

The Revolutionary Guards soon attempted to clarify Saeedi's remarks by saying he did not mean it would intervene but many critics, including Ahmadinejad, were not convinced. "Anyone who wants to direct Iranian people, Iranian people would direct him," an infuriated president said.

Back in 2005, the Revolutionary Guards were among the staunch supporters of Ahmadinejad. But internal divisions between the president and the supreme leader during his second term in office have created a wide gap between Ahmadinejad and his erstwhile patrons. As sanctions have taken toll on Iran's crumbing economy, he and the Revolutionary Guards have been engaged in a blame game, each trying to highlight the failures of the other side.