TEHRAN – The Guardian Council spokesman discounted on Saturday the possibility of manipulation of the March parliamentary election by deviationists, saying the council will fulfill its legal obligations to guarantee a clean election as before.

“The Guardian Council will act according to its legal duties as it did in previous elections,” Abbas Ali Kadkhodaii told reporters at a press conference.
The Guardian Council is a constitutionally-mandated 12-member council charged with supervising elections of, and approving of candidates to, the Assembly of Experts, the president and the Majlis.
“Elections have always been (and will be) clean,” Kadkhodaii said when asked to comment on warnings issued about deviationists’ attempts to gain seats in the parliament.
Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Hassan Firouzabadi and Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari have recently warned about current of deviation’s attempts to manipulate the parliamentary election through using cash subsidy payments as a tool to court people’s votes.
On the simultaneous membership of Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi in the Guardian Council and the newly established unity committee by principlists, the GC spokesman said Ayatollah Yazdi may be involved in some political activities as the chair of Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom, but these activities will not influence his decisions in the Guardian Council.
He also said that Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the chairman of the Guardian Council, is not involved in the affairs of the unity committee.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Kadkhodaii pointed to the conditions set by reformists for contesting the election and said that reformists’ calls are not sensible.