Daily Star in Lebanon:
Iranian reformists Friday announced a coalition inspired by former President Mohammad Khatami to win back Parliament and save Iran from the "crisis" they said was created by his successor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The coalition brings together 21 moderate parties, including the allies of ex-presidents Khatami and Ali Akbar Hashemi Ranfsanjani, to fight conservatives in the legislative elections on March 14, officials said.
"The country is in serious crisis. All parties agree that they should restore the Parliament's position and curb the government's inexpert activities," said spokesman Abdollah Naseri.
Officials said the guiding light of the coalition was Khatami, president from 1997-2005, who in recent weeks has broken two years of virtual political silence to lambast Ahmadinejad in a series of speeches.
"Khatami was behind this coalition. He is one of the pillars of consolidating reformists for the next election," another spokesman, Morteza Haji, told the news conference.
The coalition includes the largest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, and the Executives of Construction Party, founded by ex-cabinet members from the 1989-1997 presidency of the pragmatic Rafsanjani.
It is also joined by Khatami's party, the Association of Combatant Clerics, and the Organization of Islamic Revolution Mujahideen, whose members served as key lawmakers in the previous Parliament.
The other major pro-reform party, the National Confidence Party, headed by former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi, will have about 80 percent of its candidates in common with the broad coalition, Naseri said.
Reformists, who had the majority in the previous Parliament, are concerned about a repetition of the February 2004 polls, which suffered a low turnout and saw thousands of their candidates banned from standing by the conservative electoral watchdog, the Council of Guardians.
"The Council of Guardians cannot tighten the space in a way that a real competitive election does not take place," Haji said, referring to the powerful clerical body which vets all candidates running for public office.
He added that "Karroubi, Khatami and Rafsanjani are lobbying with high ranks of the Islamic Republic to guarantee the health of the election and remind the council it is not to make decisions on behalf of people."
The reformist camp is banking on a high turnout, hoping that frustration with the government's economic policies will carry them to the March polls - seen as crucial for the future political direction of Iran.
Many have complained that Ahmadinejad has provided excess rhetoric and few of the domestic reforms he promised during his campaign.
"The government has intensified most internal and international crises in the past two years because there is not a strong and watchful parliament," Naseri said.
"The back-breaking inflation is felt by people and will be a serious reason to vote," he said.
On March 14, reformists will be challenged by conservatives, who have formed a united front of their own, bringing together Ahmadinejad loyalists and traditional conservative factions.
After Khatami's 1997 presidential victory, reformists held a powerful position in Iranian politics before they started losing to rival conservatives in 2002 in municipal, parliamentary and presidential polls. They made a comeback in last year's municipal elections, when they formed a similar coalition drawing up a unified list of candidates.
Attacks on Ahmadinejad have increased of late, with some even claiming that the all powerful Council of Guardians had begun certain wresting certain power from the leader.
On Tuesday, Hassan Rowhani, a former top nuclear negotiator and head of a powerful think tank affiliated with Ranfsanjani's Expediency Council, offered a blistering critique of Ahmadinejad's foreign and domestic policies. "A strategy of letter-writing and slogans cannot be an appropriate strategy for us to follow," he said. - Agencies
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