Tehran - For a second consecutive time, Mehdi Karroubi has decided to run in the presidential elections and challenge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. While the other opposition wings are still working on their strategies how to confront Ahmadinejad in the June 12, 2009 elections, the 71-year-old moderate cleric has not only confirmed his nomination but already drawn up a plan how to avoid a second four- year term of the current president.
Karroubi, born in 1937 in Aligoudarz in the western Lorestan province, has twice served as parliament speaker (1990-1992 and 2000- 2004) and almost made it in 2005 into the second round of the presidential elections.
The cleric is head of the Etemad Melli (National Trust) party which follows a moderate course but, unlike the reformist groups close to former president Mohammad Khatami, is loyal to the Islamic system.
Both Karroubi and Etemad Melli have in the recent years distanced themselves from the radical reformist wings which they accuse to have drifted away from the Islamic system that has ruled the country since the 1979 revolution and moved towards a secular course.
Like Khatami, he is also a proponent of a civil society, social and press freedoms and a better understanding with the Western world, especially on controversial issues like nuclear projects and Middle East crisis.
In case of a nomination by Khatami, the opposition would, as was the case in the 2005 elections once again steal each other's votes away, boosting Ahmadinejad's chances in next June's elections.
