Mehdi Karroubi - 2009 Presidential Election

2009 Presidential Election

Immediately after the 2005 presidential election Karroubi founded Etemad-e Melli Party, and along with it Etemad-e Melli Newspaper. In the 2009 election he ran as the head of his party. However, many non-party figures have also endorsed him.

Karroubi has been described as "the best-organized" among the main candidates. He has his own party, his own newspaper and has always followed a clear political stance.

He claimed to be the first candidate to announce his candidacy for the presidency. During the last months before the election, he refused a call for him to withdraw in the support of Mohammad Khatami or later Mir-Hossein Mousavi. After Khatami withdrew from the race in March, Karroubi said "I have neither signed contracts with anyone nor have been promised anything. Mr. Khatami withdrew his candidacy by virtue of his personal decision. In my meeting with Mr. Mousavi I persuaded him to join the fray." Later, both Mousavi and Karroubi stated that a union among reformists would only help Ahamadinejad's reelection, claiming that reformists needed a massive turn out in order to win and that more candidates would advance their interests.

Karroubi publicized his policies by publishing four electoral declarations. According to a paper handed to his supporters during the campaign his main policies are:

1. Returning to the planned-based system of governing and using the elite and experts in decision making process
2. Organizing financial policies and increasing the effect of national budget
3. Protecting human rights and people's privacy
4. Improving women's social status
5. Nationalizing oil profits
6. Supporting NGOs
7. Supporting the right of religious or tribal minorities
8. Supporting the domination of law and opposing and criticizing illegal behavior
9. Supporting the press and free access to the information and internet

In a 2009 interview with the AFP, Karroubi also promised to expand women's rights if elected president of Iran. Among the reforms which he planned to introduce were elimination of Iran's morality police street patrols, which force an Islamic dress code on Iranian women.

He questioned mandatory Islamic dress code and proposed that Hijab needs to be optional.

His foremost economic program is for broad public ownership of the national oil and gas companies. According to this plan, adopted from the economist Dr. Massoud Nilli, company stock and profits would be shared among Iranians above 18 years of age, without the right to sell. He has predicted that this will add 70000 Tomans a month to every Iranian's income.

His campaign slogan was "Change for Iran", a word visible on his banners and other advertisements.

Former Tehran mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi was among the first to endorse him, and was Karroubi's campaign manager. Karroubi has promised to appoint him vice president if elected.

Karroubi also gained endorsements from journalist Abbas Abdi, now his political advisor, and Jamileh Kadivar, former member of the parliament and his advisor on women's issues. Other notable supporters include: Ata'ollah Mohajerani, historian, politician, journalist, and author and former culture minister during Khatami's presidency; Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, President Khatami's chief of staff, then his Vice President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, and finally his advisor; Mohammad-Ali Najafi, Iranian politician and university professor and former minister of education; Emadeddin Baghi, the founder and head of the Committee for the Defense of Prisoners' Rights and the Society of Right to Life Guardians, and winner of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders; Abdolkarim Soroush, philosopher and professor.

Mehdi Karroubi widely campaigned with his wife, Fatemeh Karroubi, during the campaign, which had previously been an unusual for a politician and his wife in Iran. Fatemeh Karroubi additionally served as the head of her husband's campaign in Tehran province and made separate speeches in support of her husband's candidacy. Karroubi's son, Taghi Karroubi, worked as one of his campaign managers.