Ayatollah Khamenei:

US knows explicit comments on Iran’s elections backfire

Rasa – The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, stressed on Wednesday that Iran’s enemies have resorted to various tricks to influence votes in Iran in the past decades but have now realized that explicit remarks on elections would have opposite effects.

News ID: 3985

Date: 24 February 2016 - 17:30

RNA – During the past 37 years, the enemy has plotted against Iran’s elections, trying to discourage people from going to the polls, the Leader said in an address to a group of people from the central Iranian city of Najafabad here in Tehran.

The enemies tried to convince the Iranian nation that their presence at the ballot boxes is futile since the results are already clear before the elections are held, Ayatollah Khamenei said about schemes in recent decades to put the people off the polls.

“At certain times, American officials even adopted clear stances (on Iran’s elections),” the Leader noted, adding, however, that the US has now realized by experience that explicit positions would backfire.

“Americans are accordingly keeping silent on these (upcoming) elections, but their agents and mercenaries are trying to employ new tricks,” Imam Khamenei warned, seemingly alluding to a recent move by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to encourage Iranian people not to vote for certain candidates in the Assembly of Experts polls.

The remarks came after US Secretary of State John Kerry in a recent interview with the Washington Post sharply cautioned against any US effort to support certain sides in Iran’s February 26 elections.

“The worst thing we could do is meddle (in Iran’s elections),” Kerry said in early February.

Elsewhere in the Wednesday address, Ayatollah Khamenei underlined the significance of going to the polls, saying that it would display people’s power despite different kinds of pressures, cruel sanctions, and mischievous propaganda against Iran.

The Leader also assured that the Iranian nation will be the ultimate victor despite all the efforts made by the enemy.

The results of upcoming elections, whatever they are, would be to the benefit of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said, stressing that whether the Iranian people make good or bad choices, the outcome would go back to themselves, so they had better make a good choice.

The Assembly of Experts and parliamentary elections will be held simultaneously on Friday.

There are currently 290 seats in the Iranian parliament, known as Majles, elected by direct vote of people in nationwide election for four years.

The Assembly of Experts is also a high-ranking body that elects and oversees the activities of the leader of the Islamic Revolution.

Members of the assembly are directly elected to office by people for an eight-year term. It holds biannual meetings to appoint a new chairman.

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