President Hassan Rouhani has issued a constitutional warning to the Guardian Council, a non-elected body that has disqualified scores of presidential hopefuls apparently in a bid to ease Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeesi's victory in the June 18 election. 

Rouhani based his case on Article 113 of the Iranian Constitutional Law that stipulates "The President is responsible for carrying out the Constitutional law and leading the executive body in all matters that is not directly part of the Supreme Leader's responsibility."

The article clearly states that "Except where matters are directly within the jurisdiction of the Leader, the President is the country's highest-ranking official after the Supreme Leader. His responsibilities include carrying out the constitutional law, regulating relations between the three bodies of the government and chairing the executive body."

Earlier, Rouhani had sent a letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khameni demanding a review of the Guardian Council's unusual verdict that narrowed down the number of candidates to seven, including Raeesi (Raisi), but eliminating three key hopefuls, former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri.

Khamenei did not respond to Rouhani's letter and did not mention the matter in his speech on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Guardian Council has not yet responded to the president's warning.

However, the Council had earlier said that Rouhani is not entitled to issue a constitutional warning. Former President Mohammad Khatami used the right to issue such warnings in the 2000s making it known that the Guardian Council had violated the Constitution, but was rebuffed.

The Guardian Council, a body consisting of 6 high-ranking Shiite clerics and 6 lawyers, is a constitutional watchdog that vets parliamentary and presidential election candidates and makes sure that legislation made by the parliament (Majles) are consistent with the Constitutional Law and the rules of Islamic jurisprudence (Shari’ah). The body operates directly under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

In his speech on Thursday, Khamenei strongly supported the Guardian Council's decision about the disqualification of candidates including former Ahmadinejad, Larijani and Jahangiri.

Last month, a Tehran City Councillor, Ebrahim Amini, called on Rouhani to issue a constitutional warning to the Guardian Council when the council overruled legislation about the registration of candidates and announced a new set of rules that were not approved by the parliament.

Saturday morning, The Jomhouri Eslami, a hardline newspaper in Tehran wrote that with the Guardian Council's decision the result of the election is already known, and that there is no ambiguity about who is going to win the election.

Earlier, outspoken former member of the Iranian parliament and prominent columnist Mohammad Javad Hojjati Kermani sarcastically suggested to Khamenei to do away with the election and issue a decree to appoint Raeesi as Iran's new president. He said this will save the nation the cost of holding a “stage-managed election” and the burden of going to the polls.

Following the widespread disqualification of candidates, former President Ahmadinejad said he will not take part in the election and will not accept election results.

Nonetheless, regime hardliners do not seem to be bothered by these criticisms. Abdolreza Mesri, a deputy Majles speaker said last week that the lower the turnout, the more accurate will be the people's choice.

On Friday, Alireza Panahian, a hardline cleric also supported the idea of an election with a low turnout and claimed that in a high-turnout election candidates may behave aggressively and rudely.