[Debate] Iranian reformists try to gather momentum for coming elections

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Back to political processes after the failed post-2009 boycott. . . .

<http://bit.ly/HZiwCb>
04/21/12		
Iranian reformists try to gather momentum for coming elections
Source: Radio Zamaneh

Iranian reformists are proposing a number of possible candidates for
next year's presidential elections, says Daryoosh Ghanbari, a
spokesman for Parliament's minority faction.

ILNA quoted Ghanbari today saying: "Reformists cannot remain
indifferent to the presidential elections." The reformist MP added:
"Without delay, reformists need to prepare for the presidential
campaign and announce their candidates."

Ghanbari went on to say that former vice-president Mohammadreza Aref;
Abdollah Noori, a former interior minister in Mohammad Khatami's
administration; Kamal Kharrazi, also a foreign minister in Khatami's
administration, and Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the late leader of
the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, are all being discussed as
possible presidential candidates for the reformist faction.

Ghanbari maintained that the reformists must participate in the
presidential elections in a more organized way than they did in the
March parliamentary elections.

Many reformist groups boycotted the parliamentary elections to protest
the continued arrest of top reformist figures and the house arrest of
reformist presidential candidates MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi
Karroubi. Some reformists, however, did choose to run in the elections
and, most controversially, former president Mohammad Khatami cast a
vote in the elections, although many had called for a reformist
boycott of the elections.

"As the reformists organizations have suffered a kind of
fragmentation, prior to finding a specific candidate, better
organization must be the first item on our agenda." Ghanbari added.

Earlier, Mohammadreza Khabbaz, a member of the National Trust
reformist party, had said that former president Khatami was the best
choice to unite reformists for the coming presidential elections.

After the 2009 presidential elections, when reformist candidates
challenged the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with allegations of vote
fraud, the government cracked down on reformist figures and
organizations, and arrested protesters who had joined mass
demonstrations across the country demanding a recount.

The reformists have thus been fragmented and also lost much of their
popular appeal for their failure to realize any change in the
political and public arenas.

-- 
Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://mrzine.org/>