TEHRAN – Deputy Majlis Speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar has said that it is a positive event that some pro-reform figures have registered to run for the March parliamentary election.  

 

“The mere presence of reformists is positive and means breaking the boycott… (former president Mohammad) Khatami had also said: ‘We will not officially boycott the election and our members are free to enter the arena,’” the veteran principlist said during the monthly meeting of the Islamic Society of Engineers on Saturday.   

 

He also said that the principlists should not allow their internal dissentions to resurface misjudging the situation that reformists are in a weak position and cannot compete with principlists. 

 

Elsewhere in his remarks, Bahonar said that the parliamentary election, its results, and the turnout are of great importance to the country in view of the fact that it is the first election after the unrest that followed the 2009 presidential election. 

 

“Signs, evidence, and explicit remarks by certain people at home and abroad show that the enemies are active and have planned to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic and influence the election,” he said.