Tehran (February 22, 2018): Former president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the immediate holding of free elections on Thursday.
Ahmadinejad has written a letter to the supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in which he has demanded immediate holding of free presidential and parliamentary elections.
“The immediate holding of free presidential and parliamentary elections, of course without their being engineered by the Guardian Council and without interference by military or security bodies so that people have a free choice – is an urgent necessity,” he wrote.
The Guardian Council is a powerful vetting body which oversees all elections in Iran, and which barred Ahmadinejad among others from running for president last May.
The former president referred directly to a speech Mr Khamenei delivered on Sunday in which he said that progress was needed in “the field of justice”, acknowledging widespread criticism of the system.
“These clear comments from the leader can of course be understood” as an appeal for “urgent and concrete reforms that meet the demands of the people,” said Mr Ahmadinejad.
During the 2009 protests against Mr Ahmadinejad’s re-election, dozens of people were killed as the regime deployed militia to back up police.
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