Canada has violated the rights of Iranians by not letting the embassy set up polling stations for the presidential election, Ali Bagheri Kani, acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, told Sputnik.
“Last Friday we held elections in all countries of the world, and the necessary preparations have already been made to facilitate voting in the second round of elections abroad next Friday,” Bagheri said.
While multiple polling stations were opened for expatriates in countries such as Germany, Iraq, the US and the UK, Canadian authorities refused permission for Iranian election activities on the territory of the country.
“Only one country has acted in violation of the rights of Iranians,” the minister stressed, adding that this is the same country several days ago “announced its alliance with terrorists.”
Bagheri was referring to the Canadian government's "provocative and irresponsible" decision on June 20 to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a "terrorist entity."
Bagheri said Canada was in effect “condoning the genocide of the Israeli regime and the actions of terrorists,” since the IRGC is a part of Iran’s armed forces — and helps fight against terrorist factions in Iraq and Syria.
It was a “violation of human rights” to leave many Iranians unable to cast their absentee ballots in Canada, Kazem Gharibabadi, the Secretary of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, said earlier.
"After Canada severed diplomatic relations with Iran, we no longer have any political representation in Canada, and a vast number of Iranians there are deprived of consular services," he said. "How are Iranians supposed to participate in the presidential elections there? Is Canada's action against human rights or not?"
Snap elections were called in Iran following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials in a helicopter crash on May 19 that was caused by a technical malfunction, according to IRNA.
The first round of voting was held on Friday, June 28. The four candidates for the presidential position were Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Saeed Jalili, Masoud Pezeshkian and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
According to IRNA, over 24.5 million votes have been counted from more than 58,000 polling stations across 482 areas of Iran. As none of the candidates gained more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round, a run-off between the two highest-polling candidates will take place on July 5.
Pezeshkian, who served as minister of health under former President Mohammad Khatami, will face off against Jalili, a representative of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Supreme National Security Council.