The United States on Thursday blacklisted five Iranian officials, accusing them of preventing free and fair elections, a day before the parliamentary vote. The Treasury Department said in a statement it imposed sanctions on the officials, members of Irans Guardian Council and its Elections Supervision Committee, over the councils role in disqualifying several thousand candidates. Thursdays action targeted Ahmad Jannati, the Secretary of the Guardian Council, Mohammad Yazdi, a member of Irans Guardian Council who was formerly Irans first Judiciary Chief, and three additional members of the Elections Supervisory Committee. The sanctions freeze any US-held assets of the officials and generally bar Americans from doing business with them. Campaigning officially ended on Thursday for Irans parliamentary election. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said voting is "a religious duty" but some prominent pro-reform politicians in Iran and activists abroad have called for a boycott. "The Trump Administration will not tolerate the manipulation of elections to favor the regimes malign agenda, and this action exposes those senior regime officials responsible for preventing the Iranian people from freely choosing their leaders," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have spiked since Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal, and began reimposing sanctions that had been eased under the accord. The vote to pick 290 lawmakers will have no major influence on foreign affairs or Irans nuclear policy, which is determined by Khamenei, whose hardline loyalists are likely to dominate the parliament.