Rumors have begun to circulate in Iranian media that Mohammad Reza Aref, the sole Reformist candidate in the 2013 presidential elections who withdrew in favor of Hassan Rouhani, may emerge as a key Reformist candidate in Iran’s next parliamentary elections in 2016.
These rumors surfaced after former Tehran Mayor Gholam Hossein Karbaschi, the secretary-general of the Construction Party, had suggested that the Reformist groups may reach an agreement to nominate Ali Akbar Nategh-Nuri — a conservative clergyman who served as parliament speaker from 1992 to 2000 and who was reportedly Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s preferred candidate in the 1997 elections — as their lead candidate for the next parliamentary elections.