Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has supported a hardline watchdog body's disqualification of leading moderate and conservative candidates seeking to run in the June presidential election. <br />''<br />''The Guardian Council, which vets candidates, has approved seven out of 592 hopefuls including hardline judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, while excluding his high-profile rivals from the race.<br />''<br />''Khamenei called on Iranians to vote in the election, seen as a test of the legitimacy of the country's clerical rulers amid rising popular anger over economic hardship and restrictions on political freedoms. He addressed the citizens through Iranian state TV and asked them to not pay attention to those who promote that voting is useless as the outcome of the election lasts for years. He appealed to the people to participate in the elections.<br />''<span style="color: #222222;"><br />''Activists have called for a boycott of the election and the hashtag #NoToIslamicRepublic has been widely tweeted by Iranians inside and outside the country in the past weeks. </span><br />