Khamenei's Representative: The IRGC Has Never Interfered in Elections, Will Not Interfere, and Will Not in the Future

Ali Saidi, the representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reiterated on Saturday, May 13, that this military institution has never interfered in any elections and will not do so in the future. Mr. Saidi stated: "The IRGC has never violated its revolutionary principles and has not interfered in any elections, will not interfere, and will not in the future." According to the Mehr News Agency, he announced that during elections, the IRGC "only reiterates the criteria for the IRGC members and Basij forces," adding: "This does not mean interference in elections, as it means acting correctly within the framework of principles and regulations." Ali Saidi's repeated stance comes at a time when, a day earlier, as reported by Mehr News Agency, "simultaneously" with the controversial third presidential debate, a news agency affiliated with the IRGC was "exposing" against Hassan Rouhani and his deputy, Eshaq Jahangiri. The Tasnim News Agency, on Friday, May 12, coinciding with the third debate and after Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf's attack on two government officials, published documents regarding Jahangiri's "astronomical properties" and Hassan Rouhani's "rent-seeking." However, the Supreme Leader's representative in the IRGC has repeatedly attacked Rouhani's government over the past year and has generally called the slogan of "cross-factional" and "neutrality" in elections a "big lie." He had previously stated that "the inherent duty of the IRGC is to reasonably and logically engineer elections." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, on October 16, 2016, communicated the general policies of elections to the heads of the three branches of government and the head of the Expediency Discernment Council, which in its sixteenth clause prohibited "favoring candidates" by the armed forces and the three branches and intelligence and security institutions. In response to this communication, Rasoul Sanaei Rad, the political deputy of the IRGC, stated that the armed forces had not interfered in elections even before the Supreme Leader's communication of the general policies and were only engaged in "clarification and enlightenment." Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the IRGC, also announced that "no IRGC members or commanders have the right to interfere politically or factionally in elections as in the past." Following these statements, however, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran in the parliament, wrote a letter to the IRGC commander stating that the arrest of managers of several political Telegram channels has "aroused a wave of concern" regarding the "commitment" to the promise of non-interference of this institution in elections. The IRGC and its commanders have repeatedly rejected criticisms regarding this force's interference in elections, deeming them "baseless." Meanwhile, some political groups in Iran have previously accused this military force and the Basij of intervening in elections, particularly referring to the presidential elections of 2005 and 2009.