Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 6 /Trend T.Konyayeva, T.Jafarov/
Iran lacks any favorable conditions for participation of reformists in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, The Etimad Daily quoted one of the top reformists as saying.
Mohammad Reza Khatami, the former deputy speaker of Iranian parliament and brother of ex-president Mohammad Khatami, made these remarks on Thursday to deny some opposition media reports issued a day before.
On Wednesday, Kaleme and several opposition websites attributed to Khatami a statement on the reformists' refusal to participate in the elections.
"I did not say that," he told in an interview with The Etimad. "I said before and reiterate now that there are no favorable conidtions for reformists to take part in the elections."
Several Khatami's [ex-president Mohammad Khatami] pre-conditions should be accepted to engage reformists in the elections, Khatami added.
Earlier, the former president asked the government to remove threatening and horror atmosphere, release the political activists, create a mechanism for conducting free elections, not to restrict electoral rights of Iranian people and provide equal rights to all parties and groups.
Some officials oppose engaging the reformists in the elections while others admit their participation under two conditions - not to organize post-electoral actions and to obey fully Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei said late August the elections should be well safeguarded as "a divine blessing". Later, he noted that the elections pose potential risk to the country's security and called for national unity.
Early September, Ali Akbar Ovliya, a member of the Iranian Parliament, said Iran should entitle all citizens, who recognize the country's Constitution, to participate in the parliamentary elections.
Ovliya has dismissed claims by some officials, who urge reformists should not be admitted to elections. "Non-participation of reformists in elections could harm the Iranian people," he added.
After the last presidential elections in 2009, many reformists were denied the right to political activity, and some of them were detained.
The ninth parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 2012. Some parties have launched pre-election activities, although six months have left until elections. Pre-election headquarters in Tehran province will begin functioning on October 12.
The Iranian parliament has 290 members.
Iran's political system is based on the conservatives and reformists. At the moment the Conservatives are in power in Iran.