TEHRAN, June 25: Defeated presidential candidate Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani reacted furiously to his shock election loss, pointing the finger at a hardline institution and a vast ‘illegal’ operation aimed at turning voters against him.
In his first public reaction to his surprise defeat to Mahmood Ahmadinejad, the moderate leader alleged ‘all the means of the regime were used in an organized and illegal way to intervene in the election’.
“I do not intend to file a complaint to jurists who have shown that they cannot or do not want to do anything. This I will leave to God,” he was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
It was a clear reference to the Guardians Council, a hardline-controlled political and electoral watchdog.
“I entered this election uniquely to serve the revolution, Islam, Iran and the people,” said the 70-year-old veteran and former two-term president who is now facing an uncertain political future.
“Those who weakened a competitor chose to weaken the revolution,” Hashemi Rafsanjani said, also condemning “those who spent hundreds of billions of rials of the people’s money to defame me and my family.”
“I hope the country will be cleared of these enemies and profiteers who are without logic or faith,” the statement said.
Mr Rafsanjani nevertheless said that ‘everyone must help’ Ahmadinejad. —AFP
