Submission of Names of Some Government Officials to the Judiciary in 'Election Violations Report'

The spokesperson for the Guardian Council announced the submission of a report on 'election violations,' including 'violations' by some government officials, to the judiciary, stating that the majority of complaints in this regard were filed by the government's rival candidate. According to the state news agency IRNA, Abbasali Kadkhodai announced on Saturday, June 17, that the Guardian Council's reports regarding 'election violations' have been sent to the judiciary and that the names of several government officials are included in these reports. Mr. Kadkhodai mentioned 'failure to deliver ballots to some polling stations,' 'shortage of ballots,' 'late start of voting in some stations,' and 'advertising by some officials in favor of a specific candidate' as examples of 'election violations.' The spokesperson also stated that the majority of complaints regarding the election were submitted by the rival candidate of the government. Mr. Kadkhodai did not mention the number of these reports or the number and positions of the officials whose names are included in these reports. The spokesperson for the Guardian Council had previously stated that the violations in the 2017 presidential election were no different from previous periods. In recent weeks, the spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary has reported the summons of some individuals due to 'violations' in the presidential election, and the Minister of Interior also confirmed that several governors have been summoned in this regard without specifying the number. The Guardian Council had previously confirmed the validity of the presidential election while also announcing that the list of 'violations' had been sent to the judiciary, which was also referenced in the spokesperson's remarks on Saturday. Meanwhile, Hossein Ali Amiri, the parliamentary deputy of the Iranian president, stated that unlike some previous periods when the Guardian Council invalidated some ballot boxes, this did not happen in the 2017 election. Ebrahim Raisi, the main rival of Hassan Rouhani in the election, has repeatedly accused the government of committing 'engineered violations' since the day of the election, citing 'failure to deliver ballots to some polling stations,' 'payment of subsidies to individuals whose subsidies had been cut,' 'payment of long-standing debts of farmers on the night of the election,' 'slander by the Iran newspaper against rivals,' and 'the candidacy of the first vice president to defend the government' as examples of 'election violations.' In contrast, Hassan Rouhani accused Mr. Raisi in election debates and speeches of using the resources of the Astan Quds Razavi and other institutions under the supervision of the Islamic Republic, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in the election. At the same time, the leader of the Islamic Republic stated that the election violations had no impact on the outcome and called for officials to 'seriously' identify the violators so that such violations do not occur in various elections. Ayatollah Khamenei's remarks about 'violations' in the 2017 presidential election come at a time when the leader of Iran and political figures close to him refer to the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election as a 'sedition.' The Guardian Council had also stated that despite the protests against the results of the 2009 election, there were no 'major violations' in that election. During the crackdown on protests against the results of the 2009 election, dozens of protesters were killed, and thousands were detained over several months, with hundreds of them sentenced to long prison terms in mass trials.