Tehran, YJC. Panahian has said that he thinks Principalist complaints by many who believe that the lack of union in the Principalist camp has caused their electoral defeat are baseless.
University
and Islamic Seminary instructor Alireza Panahian said in an interview with Mehr
"I think frets by many revolutionary forces over lack of union between Principalist
candidates as a factor in Rouhani’s victory are baseless, because even if they
made coalition the results would not have changed.”
"Each
candidate received his special votes. There was a social wave formed in favor
of Mr. Rouhani which increased his votes compared to other candidates,” he
added.
Panahian
provided comments on the reasons for the formation of such social wave and said
"People’s economic problems and the fact that the Ahmadinejad administration
showed much hostility toward Hashemi caused vast and serious public dissatisfaction
with Ahmadinejad and made people vote for the opposite pole.”
He added
"It was the same for the previous election. When people are generally
dissatisfied with a person or political current they usually vote for the
opposite one.”
Panahian
considered Rouhani a traditional right-wing clergyman and believed that he was
elected for his serious opposition to the incumbent administration.
He also
believed that Jalili and Qalibaf met defeat because they chose not to use
slander in their campaigns.