Rouhani Urges Respect for Moral Precepts in Iran’s Elections

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned against a distortion of the facts in the race for his post, saying all candidates must observe the moral principles and avoid misrepresenting the truth in order to pave the way for the maximum turnout in the upcoming election.

Addressing a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rouhani said people of Iran must be encouraged to take part in the June 18 presidential election by being informed about the realities.

“Democracy must prevail from the beginning to the end of the elections,” he added, stressing the need to observe the moral precepts, tell the truth, honor the pledges, and avoid distorting the facts in the electoral campaigns.

“The election is important, but ethics are even more important. Ethics are in fact the ultimate goal of Islam and the Revolution,” Rouhani noted. 

The outgoing president also advised the presidential candidates to encourage the people to vote by expressing the realities, and criticized the comments aimed at downplaying the achievements of his administration over the past 8 years.

“When the administration is offended, millions of people are offended. The statistics announced in the comments [by the candidates] must be correct and people should not be told lies,” he underlined.

In remarks on May 27, Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei advised the presidential candidates to avoid slandering the other candidates or turning the elections into a war of power.

“You should not look at typical American and European elections because they are notorious due to their insulting behavior. In our own country too, whenever candidates adopted the method to insult, slander and accuse other candidates during televised debates with the goal of frightening the people of other candidates, the country was harmed in one way or another. This has happened in the past. It should not be the case that we frighten the people of another candidate, saying that if he wins, such and such a thing will happen. The arena of elections is a competition for rendering services,” Imam Khamenei underlined.

Slated for June 18, the 13th presidential election in Iran will be held simultaneously with council and midterm parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections.

The seven candidates in the race for the highest executive post in Iran, singled out by the Constitutional Council, are Saeed Jalili, Mohsen Rezaei, Sayyed Ebrahim Raisi, Alireza Zakani, Sayyed Amir Hossein Qazizadeh Hashemi, Mohsen Mehralizadeh, and Abdolnasser Hemmati.

More than 59,310,000 Iranians are eligible to vote this year.