A defeated candidate in Iran's disputed election has said the Islamic system may face "collapse" unless it embraces change, in unusually blunt language from a prominent establishment figure. Conservative Mohsen Rezaie, a former Revolutionary Guards commander who finished third in the June 12 vote won by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for national unity in a statement posted on his website on Sunday evening. "Continuation of the current situation would lead us to collapse from inside," he wrote. "We need cooperation and brotherhood. We need to respect people and their rights." The presidential election sparked days of street protests by supporters of moderate candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says the vote was rigged in Ahmadinejad's favour, and exposed deepening divisions within the Islamic Republic's leadership. In his statement, Rezaie criticised the way the election was handled as well as "mismanagement in dealing with public demands and protests".