Khatami still Mulling Candidacy in Election

TEHRAN (FNA)- Former President Seyed Mohammad Khatami said he would run in the presidential elections in Iran next year if he is convinced that his candidacy has a dramatic effect on the ongoing trend of developments.

“I need to consider how my presence in the elections can impact the current trend. That is why I have not yet announced my decision (about the candidacy),” Khatami told members of the Coordination Council of Reforms Front.

Khatami’s comments followed widespread speculation about his candidacy in the 2009 presidential election.

The former president also asked members of the Reformist Camp not to insist on nominating a particular candidate as a representative of the whole front, Khatami’s office said in a report released on Tuesday, press tv reported.

Khatami argued such an approach could block the various options open to them in the course of the election campaign.

Meanwhile, another prominent reformist figure and former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi said that he would soon announce his final decision about running in the election.

Karroubi, who ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2005 election, said that the reformist alliance needs to nominate a single candidate.

However, he added, the decision as who must represent them must be made through consensus, after various reformist parties or groups have introduced their candidates, started their campaigns and evaluated their chances.

Karroubi said that the reformists will have a much harder task in the election compared to those parties within the Principlist Front that would distance themselves from current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

However, he added that positive results are achieved when fighting “hard battles not easy ones”.

Iran’s presidential election will be held on June 12, 2009.