Politics & Power Quote by Ayatollah Khamenei

Elections, in Khamenei's framing, are less a contest than a loyalty test with a moral soundtrack. The "winner" he describes is not simply the candidate with the most votes, but the figure who can be folded into the Islamic Republic's larger claim to legitimacy: that it governs not merely by power, but by virtue. By demanding "social justice" while also insisting on resistance to "plots", the line performs a familiar balancing act in Iranian political rhetoric - promising better living conditions and cleaner government, while keeping the public's attention trained on enemies within and without.

The phrasing is telling. "Remove corruption and discrimination" borrows the language of reform, the sort that resonates with voters fatigued by patronage networks and economic pressure. Yet "political, cultural and economic plots" pulls the floor out from under open-ended reform by redefining dissent and external engagement as threats. "Cultural" especially is a keyword: it signals anxiety about Western influence, media, and lifestyle changes, and it quietly authorizes the state to police not just policy but identity.

Context matters because Khamenei speaks as a supreme arbiter, not a neutral commentator. His "must" reads like guidance and preemptive boundary-setting: whoever wins should govern within a prescribed ideology. The subtext is stabilizing the regime's narrative at a moment when corruption scandals, inequality, and sanctions make "justice" popular - and "plots" politically useful.