‎As the newly formed Coalition for the Reformists group began its work, a member of the ‎central council and spokesperson for the Kargozaran (reformist) party Hedayat Aghayi ‎was elected to be the spokesperson for the coalition. In an exclusive interview, Aghayi ‎told Rooz about his views on the first round of parliamentary elections (held on March ‎‎2nd, 2008), election rigging, and the elimination of Khatami’s allies. Here are the ‎excerpts.‎

Rooz (R): How many seats are the reformers capable of filling during the forthcoming ‎run-off parliamentary elections?‎
Hedayat Aghayi (HA): Everyone knows what happened during the first round of ‎elections. For the second round (run off elections) we have witnessed a large number of ‎disqualifications of reform candidates which negated any real competition in many ‎election districts, or make them very ineffective. But despite this, the coalition decided to ‎announce candidates in those districts where it believed competition could exist, ‎something that was well received by the public. For the second round, we currently have ‎‎10 candidates in Tehran and 44 throughout the country.‎

R: Do these candidates include individuals from Etemad Melli party (pro-reform National ‎Trust party led by former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karubi)?‎
HA: No, the members of that group are not part of our list.‎

R: After the first round of elections, reformists engaged in wide protests. Do you have ‎any real documentary evidence of violations?‎
HA: The totality of evidence and documents indicated violations.‎

R: What evidence?‎
HA: For example, in about 200 precincts our candidates led the list of those that were ‎elected. But in ballot boxes adjacent to these their votes were suddenly reduced to zero! ‎In any these are serious issues that have not been addressed till today.‎

R: Has the reformist coalition pursued the issue?‎
HA: Yes, extensively. The candidates as individuals and coalition candidates have both ‎pursued it. They filed their complaints to the election officials. We too held discussions ‎with some senior administration officials. ‎

R: Was the request by Khatami and Karubi for a recount of the ballots for this reason?‎
HA: Yes. They wrote their protest letter and requested a recount because of the protests ‎that the candidates had made.‎

R: But they ignored these.‎
HA: Yes. They said there was no problem and confirmed the election results. But if there ‎really was no problem, they should have responded and investigated the requests that ‎Khatami and Karubi had filed. For example they could have recounted the votes in some ‎of the ballot boxes. Till today, they have not responded to these calls.‎

R: Don’t you think this will have even a greater impact in the run off elections because ‎fewer people usually participate in run off elections?‎
HA: We only hope that these problems will not be repeated in the run off and that ‎officials will be dedicated to honor the elections and their integrity.‎

R: Have you thought of any measures to prevent these events from happening again?‎
HA: We only hope that things will be different in the run off elections and that observers ‎will be allowed to be present at the ballot boxes. During the first round all kinds of ‎excuses such as large crowds were presented to prevent this from taking place. So during ‎the run off elections since there will be less candidates participating, we hope that those ‎practices will not be repeated.‎

R: These days there is talk of removing the term “Khatami’s allies” from the election ‎posters and lists. Why?‎
HA: My understanding is that Mr. Khatami has requested that his name be removed from ‎the posters as a sign of protest to the elections.‎

R: Is this your personal opinion or has Mr. Khatami actually made such a request?‎
HA: This is what I have understood from Mr. Khatami’s words.‎