Iran's former president to lead coalition into election

Iran:Former president Mohammad Khatami is set to lead a 21-party coalition with the aim of winning a majority in Iran's parliament in elections scheduled for mid-March.

Mr Khatami played a major role in forging the coalition, which includes his predecessor, Hashemi Rafsanjani, and seeks to capture the majlis from the followers of the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Abdollah Nasseri, spokesman for the coalition, said: "The country is in a serious crisis. All parties agree that they should restore parliament's position and curb the government's incompetence."

The coalition includes the largest reformist party, the Islamic Participation Front, Mr Khatami's Association of Combatant Clerics, and the centrist Organisation of Mujahideen (Warriors) of the Islamic Revolution, led by Mr Rafsanjani.

He heads the influential expediency council and the powerful assembly of experts which chooses the supreme guide, the most senior figure in the Islamic Republic.

Mr Ahmadinejad won the 2005 presidential election although Mr Rafsanjani was widely expected to win.

The only major progressive party which has not formally joined the coalition but will field common candidates is the National Trust Party headed by former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi.

Success in the parliamentary poll would secure a comeback for the reformists, who have been sidelined since the 2004 victory of the conservatives, and prepare the way for Mr Khatami to defeat Mr Ahmadinejad in the 2009 presidential poll.

Mr Nasseri called his government "the most unstable in Iranian [post-revolution] history" and said the coalition would end extremism in political discourse, resolve Iran's serious economic problems and restore the country's international image.

The reformist camp is relying on a high turnout at the polls and made a good showing in last year's municipal polls after they presented a united front.

The reformist coalition will be opposed by a conservative front consisting of the ultra-conservative Development Builders Party which is loyal to Mr Ahmadinejad and similar hardline factions which have the backing of Supreme Guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Revolutionary Guards, and the Basij paramilitary youth corps.