Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appealed for order during the country's parliamentary elections scheduled for early next year.

The supreme leader called for national unity and said the elections set for next March should not become a “challenge to national security.”

His comments came Wednesday at Tehran University at prayers marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Claims of voter fraud in a June 2009 presidential election led to mass street protests against the government. Reformists said the vote was rigged to ensure President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Authorities responded to the protests with a harsh crackdown that killed scores of people. The dispute over the election results became Iran's worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.