Iran leader urges high turnout in presidential election

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Wednesday for "high and enthusiastic turnout" in the country's upcoming presidential election, semi-official ISNA news agency reported. Khamenei said people should know that high and enthusiastic turnout in the election will safeguard inviolability of the country and thwart the aliens in their plots against the Iranian nation, according to the report. Iran's enemies "want to inspire the public opinion with the idea that voting and participating in the election is of no use"; and they are also trying to discourage people from participating in the upcoming presidential election, but to no avail, he said according to Fars news agency's Wednesday report. Khamenei warned that "the enemy wants to coax the Iranian nation into electing a person who will push the country towards dependence, weakness, backwardness in different fields and put Iran on the path of compliance with the aliens' policies," said Fars. In the meantime, the Iranian leader advised the Iranians to elect a pious, revolutionary and resolute person as their next president, Press TV reported on Wednesday. A total of 686 candidates registered for the upcoming presidential election slated for June 14. However, according to local media, six of them withdrew from their intent later. Iran's Guardian Council of Constitution, the main legislative body of the country, is now studying the qualification of the candidates and is supposed to release the results in the next few days. The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term through a national election.