TEHRAN, July 11 (MNA) – A leading member of the Solidarity Party blamed on Wednesday hardliners for the failure of the reformists in past elections.

“A hardline and extremist approach by certain people in the past led to the failure of the reformist faction,” Mohammad-Reza Rah-Chamani, the chairman of the Solidarity Party Supreme Council, told the Mehr News Agency. He suggested that the reformist groups should field what he called “competent and moderate” candidates for the 2008 parliamentary elections. He added that the candidates should be “popular” among the lower classes of society. On presenting single list of candidates for parliamentary elections, he said, all reformists groups “inside and outside the coordination council of the reformist front” are trying to make the lists of their candidates as similar as possible. “Even if one reformist group would want to participate independently in the parliamentary elections, surely at least 80 percent of its list of candidates will be the same as other reformist groups,” the former MP argued. RMN/MS END MNA