Iran’s Ahmadinejad could face 74 lashes over election ‘violation’.

Iran’s Ahmadinejad could face 74 lashes over election ‘violation’.(AA).After accompanying his former chief of staff to register for June’s presidential vote, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may face punishment if charged with breaking electoral rules, the country’s electoral watchdog said.

The president had accompanied Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie on Saturday to register at the Interior Ministry.

Photographs in the Iranian media showed them gripping hands and making peace signs.

Mashaie said the president had accompanied him on “a day off” from work, Reuters news agency reported.

But according to a report by Iranian news site Khabar online on Monday, the president had “introduced an individual as an election candidate.”

Abbas Ali Kadkhodai, a spokesman for the Guardian Council, said the council’s supervisory board unanimously agreed “the...actions of the president in introducing an individual as an election candidate constituted a violation and were criminal,” according to Khabar.

“We reported the facts to the judiciary,” Kadkhodai said.

The Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists, vets all candidates for elections.

Iranian electoral law forbids the use of state resources on behalf of or against any candidate, and bans individuals from supporting candidates in an official capacity.A conviction could bring a maximum punishment of six months in jail or 74 lashes, according to local press reports.

Ahmadinejad cannot run for a third term on constitutional grounds in the June 14 presidential.

According to the Mehr news agency, Kadkhodai said election violations could affect the Guardian Council’s vetting process, suggesting Mashaie’s candidacy could be under threat.

Since the 2009 ballot, Ahmadinejad has fallen foul of Iran’s ruling conservatives, who believe he is trying to maintain influence via a Mashaie presidency.

Mashaie, who is still part of Ahmadinejad’s entourage, is viewed with suspicion by conservatives who accuse him of leading a “deviant current” that seeks to sideline clerical power in favor of a more nationalistic doctrine.Read the full story here.