Iranians must have the “right to choose” between different political movements, President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday, as controversy grows over the disqualification of thousands of candidates in upcoming polls.

Speaking at the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during annual celebrations of the 1979 revolution, Rouhani, a moderate conservative, praised the political heritage of the Islamic republic’s founder.

“Whoever prevents people from choosing, and does not allow them to choose between different tendencies, and whoever discourages people from going to the polls, is certainly far from the approach of the imam”, he added, surrounded by members of the government.

Paying homage the “father of republicanism in Iran”, Rouhani said Khomeini had “refused” to establish a “caliphate” and instead “chose the Islamic republic” after the victory of the revolution against the shah’s rule.

The US-backed government of the shah fell on February 11, 1979, 10 days after Khomeini’s triumphant return from exile.Rouhani made reference to the failed constitutional revolution in 1905 the first attempt to establish democracy in Iran with the restoration of an absolute monarchy some years later.He warned that the same could happen to the Islamic republic if elections became a mere “formality”, with weak turnout.