Former Iranian reformist president Mohammad Khatami told political activists that his country is “far from free and competitive elections,” just a few days before the start of the legislative election campaign at the beginning of March.
Senior Iranian officials, led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, called for a massive participation in the elections, which are the first after the popular protests that shook the country in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.
Reformist websites quoted Khatami as telling members of the reformist Islamic Iran Solidarity Party that Khamenei’s recent statements “could have brought us closer to the desired elections, but unfortunately the opposite happened.”
He explained that free, fair, and competitive election “is a vote in which not only the reformists and conservatives, but also all other Iranians can have their own candidates.”
Khatami pointed to widespread dissatisfaction among “educated youth, elites, and over 50 percent of the population who abstained from voting in the 2020 and 2021 elections,” saying millions have cast blank votes.
He expressed hope that the government takes the “dissatisfactions seriously and paves the way for free and fair elections in the future.”
The reformist movement has not decided on participating in the elections in light of divisions among influential figures after many prominent candidates were prevented from running in the electoral race.
Some parties of the reformist and moderate movement talk about supporting independent candidates to confront the conservative majority. Those are represented by Ali Motahari, the former deputy speaker of parliament and Ali Larijani’s son-in-law.
Motahari has obtained approval, four years after he was prevented from running in the parliamentary race.
Meanwhile, Mohsen Armin, deputy head of the Reform Front, criticized a statement published by 110 reform activists last week, describing them as a “minority,” as reported by a reformist channel on Telegram.
In the statement, which was widely republished by government media, the activists called for participation in the elections to “open a window” in the conservatives’ dominance of Parliament.
Armin warned of divisions among reformists, saying: “Participation in the elections does not end with any result that guarantees the public good.”
“The majority of reformists demand that participation in the elections bring about a radical change in the political system.”
