According to a report by Vaghaye Ettefaghieh newspaper, as translated by IFP, Shahaboddin Bimeqdar said, “Reformists have won in every election that brought people to the ballot boxes; however, we must not rest assured that the president [Rouhani] will win the upcoming election easily.”
“If we do not take his campaign seriously and do not take part in the election, someone else might win the presidency,” he added.
In reaction to the elimination of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from the next presidential election, he said with Ahmadinejad’s absence, the supporters of Rouhani and reformists must be more vigilant of the circumstances because things can turn more worrisome now.
Bimeqdar, a Parliament Member from the northwestern city of Tabriz, further said, “Under the current circumstances, conservatives will stick to their activities in the silent mode and prepare their favorite candidate to jockey with Rouhani for presidency; therefore, we [reformists] must be monitoring the events carefully.”
“We must refrain from idling around; high rate of unemployment has prompted a volley of criticism against the administration; we must prepare ourselves for the upcoming election in such a manner that Mr. Rouhani will have a serious rival. We should not regard Ahmadinejad’s absence as a promising harbinger of Rouhani’s victory.”
Rouhani spent the first 1.5 years of his presidency for nuclear talks and hammering out a final deal to have the sanctions lifted against our country, the MP added.
He also said that the administration can encourage people to invest in economic sectors by luring domestic and foreign financiers into the country so that the economy would improve and criticisms diminish.
“Our loss is when we cannot get people to the ballot boxes on the Election Day. I mean if we do not take things seriously and people take Rouhani’s victory for granted and do not come to the ballot boxes, somebody else might win the election.”
