Ali Motahari: Neither Approval nor Disqualification Matters to Me, Nor Being the Top of the List
Ali Motahari, regarding the reason for his candidacy in the current election period, told Jahan News: I wasn’t eager myself. Former representatives, those who were in the same term as us, many of them contacted me, and others also said to come, it might affect participation, and maybe we’ll make a list and we want you to be part of it.
He added: I was really hesitant, and finally, I came. Even now, it doesn’t matter; if they disqualify me, we say we came to fulfill our duty, which might have some impact on people’s participation. We have no complaints now.
Motahari, regarding the level of participation in the elections, said: People are generally dissatisfied because of these price hikes and the difficulties in managing their lives. If the government could have done something in the recent months to show that it has somehow controlled inflation and prices won’t go above a certain level, people would have been somewhat hopeful, and it would have influenced people’s participation in the elections.
Regarding being at the top of the list from the moderate and reformist spectrum, he said: In general, in all election periods, it hasn’t been very important to me which list I’m on, and usually, they themselves would choose.