Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 5
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Reformists and moderates should form a coalition for upcoming parliamentary elections in Iran in 2016, former Iranian vice-president Mohammad Reza Aref said, Iran's ISNA news agency reported.
The reformist politician Aref withdrew from the presidential race in favor of the moderate Hassan Rouhani, which resulted with Rouhani`s victory in the presidential elections in June 2013.
Aref who was first vice president for Mohammad Khatami from 2001 to 2005 underlined that due to recession of political activities and weakening some political parties and organizations in recent years, it is necessary that activities for the next parliamentary election start as soon as possible.
While responding a question about his presence in parliament elections, Aref said that it is soon to make decision on the issue. He went on to say that strengthening the reformist and moderate parties and political organizations and moving within coalition and consensus as a united front of moderates and reformists in the upcoming parliament elections are among reformists` strategy.
In the absence of major reformist parties, which were kicked off the political stage over the 2009 post-election riots, conservatives won the 2012 parliamentary election.
Earlier some Iranian reformists have indicated that they intend to nominate a moderate conservative former minister and presidential candidate Ali Akbar Nategh-Nuri as their lead candidate in the country's next parliamentary election, which may be a sign of coalition between reformists and moderate conservatives.
Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi, the secretary-general of the reformist Construction Party said in Oct. 2013 that Iran's leading reformist groups may reach an agreement to nominate Nategh-Nuri as their lead candidate for the upcoming parliamentary election in 2016.
Nategh-Nuri was Iran's interior minister during the presidency of moderate conservative Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and also served as the speaker of Parliament from 1992 to 2000.
Edited by C.N.