An Iranian newspaper affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards called on the government and parliament to avoid economic decisions that would lead Iranians to boycott the legislative elections scheduled for March.
Javan warned of government plans to significantly increase taxation and public expenditures, saying on Thursday that this would lead to people not turning out for the ballot boxes.
It also called for adopting measures to improve people’s lives during the next three months, in order to increase the people’s motivation to participate in the elections.
In addition to economic issues, the newspaper said the government’s diplomatic policies will be under public scrutiny ahead of the elections, stressing that they will directly affect voting.
The parliament rejected the broad outlines of the budget presented earlier this month by President Ebrahim Raisi. Representatives criticizing the draft budget said it features unrealistic numbers and may lead to a budget shortfall.
The warning by Javan, which is affiliated with the Political Bureau of the Revolutionary Guards, was made shortly after a now widely circulated video emerged of an Iranian cleric directing rare criticism at Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Mohammad Taqi Akbarnejad, head of a seminary (school for Shiite clerics), in the province of Kermanshah, pointed criticism at the Assembly of Experts, which includes 88 influential clerics and whose constitutional duties are to supervise the administration of the supreme leader.
Akbarnejad recounted a conversation he had with an Iranian citizen at a mosque. He quoted the citizen as “lamenting” that Khamenei “is not our leader, but the leader of the Yemenis and the Palestinians.
The cleric added that the citizen asked him about the “leader's silence” over the record hike of the dollar against the local currency.
He reportedly said: “The leader has not taken any measure. He has not said that our people are a red line; our people must not confront such a crisis and the prices should not rise. This must be resolved even if it meant changing our foreign policy. This must be our priority.”
“‘I am not a priority for Khamenei. His priority is Yemen and Palestine,’” the cleric quoted the citizen as saying.
