Electioneering and early campaigning by Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a few other candidates continue even though the law says they should start after their qualifications are endorsed by the election watchdog, the Guardian Council sometime next week.

The Council's spokesman said on Saturday that the last vetting session of candidates for the June 18 presidential election will be held on Tuesday, meaning that final candidates may be named late Tuesday or early Wednesday. Election watchers belive that the former president has little chance of being approved by the secretive Guardian Council closely aligned with hardliners who are supporting the Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeesi.

But Ahmadinejad is in full swing, criticizing the government for "limiting the people's choice" in his Clubhouse appearance Saturday night. The audio chat application has become quite popular among Iranian politicians, journalists and debate-hungry public in the absence of a free media in the country.

Ahmadinejad's office claims that over 100,000 people joined the conversation, but others say there were around 10 to 12 thousand people in the main chatroom and a few thousands more listened on in other chatrooms.

Speaking on the underlying theory of the Islamic Republic, Velayat-e Faqih or Guardianship of the supreme jurisconsult (Supreme Leader), Ahmadinejad maintained that "If the people decide to change a part of the Constitution, they should be able to do so and the jurisconsult should abide by the will of the nation."

This is a complete shift by Ahmadinejad who in 2011 had said in a cabinet meeting that "Velayat-e faqih is the continuation of the path of the hidden Imam and the major legacy that has reached us throughout centuries." He also vowed that his government would work based on this underlying theory.

The chatroom also had a suggestive label:  Ahmadinejad in the election - a critic of the structure of the Islamic Republic and why its ideals have not materialized." Ahmadinejad spoke about several key issues including freedom. He said: "There will be no growth and flourishing in a country where there is no freedom."

Addressing state officials, he added: "Anyone who criticizes the Islamic Republic is jailed, and you still defend the status quo. You shut the doors to criticism so tightly that any criticism is perceived as breaking the structure of the regime. You have limited the people's choices."

This contradicts Ahmadinejad's statement in 2009 in reaction to criticism of the election results and the ensuing unrest. At the time, he claimed that there was "nearly absolute freedom" in Iran. Also, in a 2009 news conference he called Iran's electoral system "accurate and transparent," adding that in Iran the people supervise the election.

Many of those present at the session later complained on social media that Ahmadinejad did not directly answer their questions. Iran International TV Anchor Kamyar Behrang summed up the session on his Twitter account as: "Those who listen to Ahmadi-Nejad think they can challenge him by asking tough questions. But he answers the toughest questions with a question of his own. In fact, he never answers your question and does not accept any responsibility about his performance."

While Ahmadinejad criticized the government’s economic performance it is worth noting that Iran's total oil revenue under his presidency was around $700 billion, an unprecedented amount. Nonetheless, economic experts say that Iran's economic growth rate plummeted to a record low during his tenure (2005 – 2013).

IRGC-linked Fars news agency reported on Saturday that one of the reasons why the vetting has taken longer this year is that there are investigation's going on about the nationality of one of the candidates' children who lives in the United States. Another candidate's health condition may affect his eligibility to run, although there is nothing about this in the election law.