Tehran - Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami will lead
the opposition coalition in next the country's March parliamentary
elections, the cleric's brother told the Fars news agency on
Saturday.
'As far as I know, he will not directly nominate himself but lead
the (opposition) coalition,' Mohammad-Reza Khatami of the reformist
Islamic Participation Front said.
After the two defeats of the 2004 parliamentary and 2005
presidential elections, the reformist and moderate factions formed a
coalition and hope to regain power in 2008.
The Iranian parliament is currently dominated by the Abadgaran
(Reconstruction) party to which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is
affiliated.
The new coalition is unofficially led by former presidents Khatami
and Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and gained an initial victory in last
December's Experts Assembly, imposing Ahmadinejad a first setback
since his presidency in 2005.
The parliamentary elections, scheduled for March 14, 2008, will
this time also have international impacts due to the global crisis
over Iran's controversial nuclear programmes.
A victory by the reformist would not only affect Iran's domestic
and foreign policies but eventually also prepare ground to replace
Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential elections.
The reformist-moderate coalition is however not as unified Khatami
and Rafsanjani would like and are rather divided between wings loyal
to the Islamic system and those not fully acknowledging the political
status quo and heading towards more secularism.
Although all political factions have an unanimous stance on Iran's
right to pursue nuclear technology, the differences between the
ultraconservatives and moderate-reformists are rather focused on
internal and especially economic issues.
According to economic experts Ahmadinejad has failed to implement
his economic reforms in favour of low income social classes and is
held responsible for the high inflation and astronomic real estate
prices.
Another issue is the voting age after Ahmadinejad voiced
preference to revise last January's approval on changing the minimum
voting age from 15 to 18 and return it again to 15.
There are also debates whether the vote counting should for the
first time be computerized or again be made manually.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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