ID :
283059
Sat, 04/27/2013 - 08:11
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Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/283059
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I will be Rahim-Mashaii’s serious competitor: Iran`s Bahonar

TEHRAN,April 27(MNA) – “I will be a serious competitor for Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaii in the presidential election if the Guardian Council approves his qualifications,” presidential candidate Mohammad Reza Bahonar told reporters in Yasuj on Thursday.
Asked whether Rahim-Mashaii, a close ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is associated with the “deviant current”, Bahonar said that he thinks Rahim-Mashaii is “on top of the deviant current.”
There is great speculation that Ahmadinejad is grooming Rahim-Mashaii as his administration’s candidate in the June presidential election. However, some principlists have “indirectly” suggested that the Guardian Council, an oversight election body, should not confirm Rahim-Mashaii, whom some principlists consider as the leader of the “deviant current”, as a presidential nominee.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Bahonar, who is currently the deputy speaker of the parliament, said many of the reformists, though having different viewpoints, are loyal to the Islamic system’s principles and the Supreme Leader.
He added when the Supreme Leader in his speech in Mashhad on March 21 urged all groups with different political persuasions to field candidates in the election, he meant that reformists should also contest the presidential race.
The veteran principlist lawmaker also said candidates of “administration, reformists, and principlists will be three electoral rivals, and certainly we will take our rivals serious.”
Elsewhere he noted, “We should be fair to acknowledge that former president Mohammad Khatami used to obey the Supreme Leader whenever he issued any clear instructions.”