ABSTRACT
Once the traditional right had adopted Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri as its presidential candidate, with the conservative Association of Combatant Clergy lining up behind him, the centrist SOC had to decide whether to name a candidate from within its own ranks or ally with leftists or conservatives. When the left’s first choice, Mir Hussein Musavi, a former prime minister, failed to win a nod from the Leader’s office in early 1997, its chief spokesman, Ayatollah Muhammad Musavi Khoeiniha, managing editor of the influential Salaam newspaper, approached Hojatalislam Muhammad Khatami, then head of the National Library, to run for presidency as the emerging (political) reform movement’s candidate. Khatami, a mild-mannered, academically-inclined man, reportedly became angry at the thought of entering the world of power politics. Later, however, he calmed down and agreed to run.1 His candidacy got a boost when Rafsanjani, working behind the scenes, decided to put his weight behind those preparing to challenge the traditional right, which had resisted his economic liberalization drive. So he advised the SOC to ally with the left in the presidential race. It did. Khatami also got the endorsement of the left-of-center Society of Combatant Clerics – popularly known as Majme – which in the earlier contests had backed Rafsanjani. His election campaign was masterminded by the SOC’s Gholam Hussein Karbaschi, mayor of Tehran, and Khoeiniha, who turned his Salaam newspaper premises into the campaign headquarters.
