Jailed Iranian reformist figure Mostafa Tajzadeh has announced that he has symbolically established a virtual headquarters for inviting former president Mohammad Khatami to run in the 11th presidential election.
The Norooz website, which has links to the banned reformist organization Islamic Iran Participation Front, reported that Tajzadeh, an executive member of the IIPF, announced his intentions from Evin Prison, adding that the campaign motto is drawn from a poem expressing fears about the country’s possible ruin at the hands of ill-wishers.
Tajzadeh highlighted the reference that Ayatollah Khamenei made in his New Year speech to “diverse tendencies” being accommodated in the election, saying: “We hope this is a prelude to a free, healthy, fair and legal election, and if that is the case we’ll be grateful to him. But if that sentiment remains only at the level of words and the election turns out to be engineered and skewed, he (Ayatollah Khamenei) will be responsible for it and its outcomes and he has to be held accountable for it.”
The next presidential election is slated for June 2013. The last presidential election was marred by reformist allegations of vote fraud and mass demonstrations all across the country.
Several reformist groups and figures have been urging former president Mohammad Khatami to run in the election.
The two reformists candidates that ran in the last election, however, have been under house arrest since 2011.
