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Khatami still Mulling over June Presidential Elections

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s former president Seyed Mohammad Khatami indicated he could still take part in next June’s presidential election.

“I swear to God that my hesitance and thorough evaluations to run in the election does not mean that I am running away from responsibility or consider my own expediency,” Khatami said in a speech in Ilam, western Iran on Monday.

“The main issue is solely how to serve the people best,” he said.

Khatami has come under intense pressure from his supporters to challenge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is thought likely to seek re-election.

The country’s reformist wing believes that only 65-year-old Khatami would have the potential to seriously challenge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 elections.

He gave no indication as to whether he would step aside but the Khatami comments on Monday are the strongest indication so far that Mousavi, prime minister between 1981 and 1989 is emerging as a serious candidate for June’s presidential polls.

“I tell all reformists and those who are not reformists but wish for a change…that with God’s help either me or Mousavi will run,” Khatami said in a meeting with visitors from Ilam, a western province.

Khatami was scheduled to meet Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday – the latest in a series of consultations on his possible presidential candidacy.

The cleric, however, has said on several occasions that he first wants guarantees he would have enough authority as president to implement his reformist policies within the system in Iran.

Khatami has indicated in recent months that any hesitation over whether to run is down to fears that he might complicate the country’s affairs insisting that were he to run he would want to be sure that his candidacy would help, rather than exacerbate, the country’s problems.

“It will either be me or Mir Hossein Moussavi to run in the elections,” said Khatami who is a harsh critic of Ahmadinejad’s internal and external policies.

Moussavi was prime minister between 1981 and 1989 and is considered to be a technocrat in line with Khatami’s reform course.

Analysts believe Mousavi has popular support because of his record in managing Iran during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) when the supply of food and fuel was maintained due to a rationing scheme he introduced.

The unique support the Late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, gave Mousavi also makes his revolutionary background very strong which cannot be challenged easily by today’s fundamentalists.

“Not only reformists wish a change of the political status quo,” said Khatami, referring to some members of the conservative faction who do not support Ahmadinejad the way they did when he became president in 2005.

“Important is that the votes of the people will be respected and supported,” he added.

Under the constitution, the senate-like Guardian Council, consisting of 6 clerics and 6 jurists, have the power to disqualify candidates running for presidential and parliamentary elections.

In the event of Khatami’s candidacy, Ahmadinejad would face a tough challenge. During his presidential campaign, Ahmadinejad promised to implement economic reforms to help the lower and middle class.