Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps responded to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s criticism of the IRGC for interference in the elections of Iran’s Medical Council, saying their intelligence unit has a duty to assure that election eligibility criteria are met.
On Wednesday February 27, the IRGC website quoted Ramazan Sharif, the PR officer for the IRGC, saying: “The actions of the Guards in reviewing the eligibility of the candidates in the Medical Council elections are completely legal and have been undertaken at the request of legal authorities.”
While Sharif does not directly mention Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he does add: “It would have been better that before making allegations in the media, our friends should have pursued the matter through the legal channels and they would have discovered the strong reasons for declining the eligibility of some candidates.”
He called for “the protection of peace and unity in the country”, adding that the Revolutionary Guards will make every effort to avoid entering processes that may cause confusion and distortion of public opinion.
Earlier, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had announced that the IRGC must avoid interference in the election of the Medical Council.
He stressed that the Medical Council has regulations that specify which bodies should lead inquiries about candidates.
The Medical Council is the largest professional body in Iran and had its sixth round of elections last Friday. According to the Bahar Newspaper, 120 of the candidates in these elections were disqualified and many of them were Ahmadinejad allies.
