Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran on Wednesday. With Iranians going to the polls on Friday, he called on the state bodies that organize elections to “be vigilant to protect and secure people’s votes.” Credit Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader.

Axar.az reports quoting the New York Times.

Iran’s supreme leader issued a warning on Wednesday, saying there was a chance that some individuals — he was not clear which — might interfere in Friday’s presidential elections. In 2009, widespread allegations of fraud led to street protests that rocked the country for six months.

In a statement posted on his personal website, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on the state institutions that organize the elections to “be vigilant to protect and secure people’s votes.”

“Some people might wish to make infringements,” he added, though he did not specify if he was referring to people in state institutions.

“However, these bodies,” he continued, “be they supervisory, executive or security-ensuring bodies, thank God, are trustworthy and certainly should be vigilant.”

The warning highlights growing tensions over the vote, which is coming down to two candidates with diametrically opposed ideologies. The incumbent, President Hassan Rouhani, is promising greater freedom and more interaction with the world, while his principal rival, Ebrahim Raisi, is a hard-line cleric arguing for self-sufficiency as a way to fix Iran’s ailing economy.

The divisions are playing out in provincial towns as well as in the capital, Tehran. Every night, tens of thousands of people take to the streets around the country, waving the posters of their favorite candidates