Ayatollah Imam Khamenei warns politicians against electoral smearing

Source: AFP, 03-01-2008
TEHRAN: Iran's supreme leader warned the country's politicians on Wednesday against "insulting and smearing" their opponents, amid increasingly sharp political exchanges in the run-up to March elections. Iranians are to vote on March 14 to choose a new parliament, in hugely significant polls in which moderates will be seeking to launch a comeback by overturning conservative dominance of the legislature.
"The supporters of the different candidates ... should not defame pious people and disgrace them in leaflets, the press, and Web sites," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a crowd of thousands at a rally in the central city of Yazd.
"I seriously insist that the supporters of different candidates should not show an interest in insulting and smearing others," he said in the speech broadcast live on state television. The Council of Guardians has in the past vetoed candidates deemed to be insufficiently qualified, a process which has been criticized by reformist figures.
Khamenei backed the screening process, saying those approved by the council are those candidates who meet the "minimum level of competence."
The supreme leader's speech to the crowds at Yazd's central Amir Chakhmaq square was a rare address to a public rally. His comments come amid increasing political tensions, which have seen politicians drop the courtesy and ceremony that is traditional in Iranian politics in favor of blunter attacks on opponents.