Iran conservatives claim broad election front

Iranian conservatives announced on Tuesday they had formed a political front for March parliamentary elections, uniting loyalists of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other conservative factions.
"The coalition called 'The United Principalists Front' has been formed based on the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's definition of principles," its spokesman Shahabeddin Sadr told a news conference. Conservatives in Iran are termed in Persian as "Osulgarayan" - which literally translates as "Principalists". They see themselves as defenders of the principles of the 1979 Islamic revolution and religion.
The new front brings together the pro-Ahmadinejad "Sweet Scent of Service" faction, newly formed last year, with several other more traditional conservative factions, Sadr said. The most notable of these is the "The Followers of Imam and Leadership Front", a major umbrella grouping embracing some 14 traditional conservative groups. These include the Islamic Association of Engineers, whose ranks include deputy parliament speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar, and the Doctors Islamic Association, the faction of the supreme leader's foreign policy advisor Ali Akbar Velayati.
Their inclusion indicates the conservatives have achieved a more united front than in the 2006 municipal elections when the pro-Ahmadinejad forces lost votes to more moderate factions. "We learned our lesson to be united from previous elections," Sadr said. "We did not achieve good cohesion in the municipal polls."
But "opinion polls show that people throughout the country still have a positive view on Principalists," Sadr said. Iranians will go to the polls on March 14 to elect representatives to the now conservative-dominated parliament, in an election seen as crucial for the future political direction of the Islamic republic.
Conservatives will be challenged by Iran's reformists and moderates, who made a comeback in the municipal polls after enduring successive defeats since 2002 in municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections.
Iran's main reformist party on Monday called for a broad moderate front to contest the legislative elections, warning that the country risks "war and isolation" under Ahmadinejad.