Iran’s pro-reform political camp is likely to campaign for incumbent Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani if he were to run in the 2021 presidential election, a reformist lawmaker said.
There have been sporadic talks of support for the moderate principlist politician among reformists. Rumors are circulating that several members of the Hope parliamentary faction, who have pro-reform leanings, voted for him in the latest election for the presiding board.
“I do not deny the possibility that reformist groups be left with no choice but to campaign for a person with the qualities of Larijani," Mahmoud Sadeqi, a member of the Hope Faction, said in an exclusive interview with ISNA published on Tuesday.
Despite certain criticisms, he expressed admiration for Larijani's management skills and his great forbearance.
"In addition to his mastery of the parliamentary procedure, Larijani has been in full control of Majlis sessions and has a great and admirable degree of tolerance," he said.
>Man of Critical Junctures
According to Sadeqi, Larijani has acted professionally in his parliamentary chairmanship and is able to make appropriate and wise decisions at critical junctures, characteristics that could qualify him as a president.
"Iran's political climate is highly fluid and unpredictable … We sometimes reach a point where we have no option but to vote for a particular person," he said, citing the 2013 election in which the pro-reform candidate Mohammad Reza Aref dropped out of the ballot in support of Hassan Rouhani, who won a landslide in the vote.
He, however, stressed that reformist groups need to act more prudently in forming a coalition with moderate principlists, given their rather unsuccessful past experience of throwing their weight behind Rouhani.
Pro-reform political groups enjoy the support of the young and educated Iranians who play an instrumental role in determining the outcome of elections.
In the most recent parliamentary and city council elections, the lists of pro-reform candidates swept the majority of seats in Tehran and several other metropolises, thanks to their broad popular base in urban areas.
Their backing for Rouhani is said to have contributed greatly to his victory both in the 2013 and 2017 presidential races.
However, Rouhani appears to have disappointed reformists, especially in his second term due to his failure to fulfill his promises to bring about political, social and economic reforms.
According to Sadeqi, this failure has eroded the key social stratum's trust in the political group.
"Rouhani dented our human capital," he said.
The lawmaker further said reformists' approach in the next presidential election will depend on the prevailing global political conditions.
"One cannot view the conditions in black and white, especially given the fact that pro-reform groups face constraints and need to act more flexibly," he said.
