Military Role in Elections

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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On January 08, 2013, during an interview, Iranian supreme leader’s representative to the IRGC, Ali Saidi, said that the duty of the Revolutionary Guard is to engineer reasonable presidential elections.

Saeedi said that the Guards’ inherent duty is to engineer reasonable and logical elections. Saeedi reacted in an interview to reformist Rafsanjani, Ahmadinejad, and other candidates, who are aiming to form a political coalition amidst upcoming elections, by stating that IRGC will not intervene in the elections, but they have the duty to engineer a reasonable framework in which elections can proceed.

A few hours after social media picked up the comments of Ali Saidi, IRGC’s Public Affairs Spokesperson, Ramadan Sharif, explained that the “rational engineering of elections comment” mentioned by Saidi ,meant the activation of IRGC’s capabilities in its legal missions and duties, not the intervention of IRGC, in the election process.

What are your thoughts about the role of any state’s military in elections? Do you agree with Ali Saeedi when he says that “rational engineering of elections” is a military’s essential duty?

DET - United States Central Command
(http://www.centcom.mil/ur)

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Re: Military Role in Elections

If military is not involved in direct governance then there should be no role of military in elections, at most some paramilitary presence around cities to stop any attempt to 'mass rigging', eruption of violence etc.

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Re: Military Role in Elections

Engineering of elections is absolutely wrong and unethical. Defending a country against external threats (actual or perceived) should be the only job of the military and on election day (in a developing country like ours) their main role is in maintaining law and order in the country to help ensure peaceful and orderly voting

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Military Role in Elections

What are your thoughts on interfering in other countries elections? Or Killing their scientists and cyber attacking their system for that matter?

What do you think about the illegal sanctions that prevent basic treatment for the iranian public ?

Suddenly, election frameworks seems a non issue in comparison. You are the criminals here, so let not pretend your concern is ever genuine.

Please keep your abnormally large nose out of it and perhaps worry about your own country, thats going to the dogs by the looks of it.