Gholamali Haddad Adel who was speaking in a press conference ahead of February 26 Parliament elections in Mehr News Agency on Sunday, believed that he would trace the literature dominating the Sixth Parliament political campaign now in present campaign trails. His criticism of the Reformist camp campaign reminded him of an atmosphere when the Principlists won a minority number of seats in the Parliament where Mr. Haddad Adel was the leader of the minority.
“The digital as well as print media reflects the atmosphere dominant in those times when some candidates coordinated their political leanings with changes in the public tide and changed their economic tenets whenever necessary from avowed socialism to Liberalism; sometimes they would opt for Westernism in a U-turn from their previous principles. These maneuverings, I believe, targeted the public votes. Our brand of ‘principlism’ however, opposes such political behavior of opportunism and hypocrisy,” he told the press.
Haddad Adel then turned to Principlists list of the candidates in Tehran, believing that the list contained more economists with at least 10 candidates with experiences in higher economic positions in past governments; “the list well reflects our concerns for public welfare; economy is a priority in our political campaign,” he added.
The Principlists’ spokesperson warned about incipience of a campaign reminiscent of the Sixth Parliament election campaign when Reformists plunged the ‘public opinion’ into a pandemonium where indecision would be best option; “in those days, some candidates [Reformists] would have advocated the Leader’s ideals and positions purportedly but acted otherwise out of sheer attempts to canvass public support for their campaign. The dominant mode of the election campaign is the lack of morality, defamation of political rivals, and using a language of vilification,” he added.
On a question of economic performance of the 7th, 8th, and 9th Parliaments where the Principlists had majority, Haddad Adel responded that the 8th and 9th Parliaments did concern the economic hardships; “in the present Parliament, we passed into the law acts which addressed the economic difficulties and solving those issues,” he said.
Haddad Adel however believed that solving country’s economic problems entailed coordination and cooperation of the government and Parliament in an atmosphere of equanimity; “if the language of threat succeeds to secure seats in the Parliament, we should not expect to have this peace and should anticipate an atmosphere not unlike the Sixth Parliament,” he objected.
Haddad Adel responded to criticism levelled on the Principlists who turned a blind eye on their favorite cabinet of 9th and 10th government and respective Parliaments; “running the country while the most paralyzing sanctions by the US and EU were on place was not an easy task as it would seem in retrospect; on fighting systematic corruption, I believe it is not a partisan issue to be touched and now we see however that a certain political faction abuses it to advance their interests in election campaign; all should give hands to uproot the corruption and cronyism, which calls for a serious will in part of the Parliament and the Judiciary as well,” he told the press.
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