NCRI – Iranian regime’s presidential candidates have been warned they can only stand in this June’s election if their views are ‘identical’ to those of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The bizarre edict was handed down by the regime’s Guardian Council, which has the right to vet candidates.
Guardian Council member Mohammad Momen told state-run Fars news agency on Sunday: “If we smell any deviance in anyone, we will disqualify him.
“The Guardian Council is full alert for signs of deviance. Anyone who feels concerned must know that we are not prepared to debate this and we will not give in to anyone.”
His remarks comes amid speculation that the council will not approve Ahmadinejad’s preferred candidate Rahim Mashaei – who has already been branded a ‘deviant’.
The council is made up of six experts in Islamic law, who are all selected by Ali Khamenei, and six judges selected by the parliament – but who were also appointed as judges by the Supreme Leader.
The sham election comes amid panic among the regime’s elite over a repeat of the massive street protests that marked the 2009 election.
Ahmed Khatami, a member of Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts, said last week: “During the 2009 sedition, people were looking to topple the central pillars of our society.
“Therefore, we should stand behind the Leader and we should not allow this central pillar to become unstable.”
Fellow Assembly of Experts member Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi branded rival political factions as ‘satanic’ and that any opposition to Khamenei is ‘blasphemy’.
