Associated
Press - In front of a portrait of the late Iranian
revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, presidential candidate Hasan
Rowhani, a former top nuclear negotiator, looks on, as he
Iranian presidential candidate Hasan Rowhani, a former top nuclear negotiator, left back to camera, gestures to his supporters, as he attends a rally, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 1, 2013. The 11th presidential election after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, will be held on June 14.
Supporters of the Iranian presidential candidate Hasan Rowhani, a former top nuclear negotiator, hold his posters, as one of them flashes a victory sign, in a rally, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 1, 2013. The 11th presidential election after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, will be held 14.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian police have arrested several people campaigning for a reformist candidate in this month's presidential election, an aide said Sunday, as a senior official pledged to impose ideological limitations on the race.
Police picked up several supporters of candidate Hasan Rowhani after he delivered a speech Saturday night, his campaign manager, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, told the semiofficial Mehr news agency.
"Some people were detained on the street after leaving the meeting," he said.
The June 14 election is to choose a replacement for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
who cannot run for a third term. Authorities have already pared down
the list of candidates to eight, disqualifying Ahmadinejad's top aide
and a former president who could have galvanized opposition to the harsh
clerical system.
That was a clear indication that Iran's rulers did not want an open contest that could end up in a disputed outcome of the type that set off widespread riots when Ahmadinejad was re-elected in 2009.
On Sunday, after the arrests, a top official warned that Rowhani and others would be limited in their election drive.
"Police will confront individuals who have counter-revolutionary behavior" during campaigning, said the Iranian police chief, Gen. Ismail Moghadam, according to the police website. "It is natural that police have carried out their tasks."
An exile-based Iranian opposition website reported that authorities arrested at least seven people who attended Rowhani's campaign appearance.
It said the arrests were made after participants chanted slogans calling for the release of Mir Hossein Mousavi, an opposition leader and candidate in the disputed 2009 election, who has been under house arrest for more than two years.
A council of advisers to influential former reformist President Mohammad Khatami has urged Rowhani to unite with the other major reform-leaning candidate, Mohamed Reza Aref.
A statement on Khatami's personal website expressed hope that the two could form a "united front" to field a single nominee.Nematzadeh, Rowhani's spokesman, said the two candidates have not met to discuss the possibility.
Aref's star has been rising since
his performance in a Friday debate of the eight candidates, restoring
some energy to the reform movement after their main candidate, former
President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was disqualified.
Also Sunday, four aides to another candidate, Saeed Jalili, were
injured in a road accident. Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, is
considered a front-runner in the campaign. The accident happened on the
way to the city of Ghazvin, about 120 kilometers (70 miles) west of
Tehran. Jalili was in a different vehicle and was not hurt.Iran is among the world's leaders in the number of road accidents per capita. More than 20,000 people are killed on the roads there every year.
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