Iran’s President Hits Back at US Report on Election
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed a recent US report accusing Iran of “falling short of international standards for free elections”, saying the US had better care about its own recent presidential election and the subsequent social turmoil.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of Iran’s Assembly of Experts in Tehran on Tuesday, President Rouhani rejected the US Department of State’s 2016 human rights report on Iran, underlining that the country’s elections are “free, healthy, competitive and democratic.”
“I believe that those criticizing elections in Iran need to take a look at their own recent elections and the problems they have had,” he added.
Highlighting the criticism of the process of US presidential election by both Democratic and Republican candidates, President Rouhani said the current US president himself had called into question the election results.
In his election campaign in October 2016, Donald Trump had announced “I will totally accept the results of the election if I win.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, President Rouhani said the election mechanism in Iran is based upon participation of people, noting that a turnout of above 70 percent in Iran’s presidential election and long queues until the very last minutes of the polls at the ballot boxes demonstrate that people believe in the elections.
“We have a very strict executive system (for elections) according to the Constitution and the country’s laws,” the president underscored.
