Khamenei defends Iran’s 'epic' elections

In his latest speech on the occasion of judiciary day and in the presence of President-elect Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed Iran’s June 18 elections and discussed doubts about the judiciary changes made by Raisi.

Khamenei said Iran’s presidential elections were "truly an epic created by the Iranian people.” He said many Western countries and even some Arab countries in the Persian Gulf were hoping for a low turnout given Iran’s tough economic situation and the disqualifications of many candidates, but they were proved wrong. Foreign-funded Persian language television shows such as Voice of America, the British Broadcasting Corporation and Iran International all had mostly negative coverage of Iran’s elections.

Regardless of Khamenei’s claims on the "epic" nature of the vote, Iran saw the lowest turnout in the history of presidential elections in the Islamic Republic at 48%. The main reason for the low turnout was that the Guardian Council had not approved many Reformists or moderates to run, such as Ali Larijani, Eshaq Jahangiri and Mostafa Tajzadeh. Even former hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was disqualified from running.

Khamenei, distancing himself from the candidate disqualification process, said there are moments when he might have points of disagreement with the Guardian Council but defended their decision, saying they are “pious individuals” and they “act according to the constitution and their religious duties.” Khamenei said foreigners had hoped Iran’s presidential elections would have 20% or 25% participation rate. One factor pushing up the participation was that city council elections took place at the same time, which are particularly important for smaller cities.