With less than two months to Irans 11th presidential election, most hopefuls have launched their campaigns on a platform of improving the countrys economy and dealing with financial issues,Press TVreports.In our campaign slogan, the first letter stands for creating a strong economy. I promise to lower inflation to below 20 percent and unemployment to below 10 percent, reformist presidential hopeful Mostafa Kavakebian told Press TV.
He is not the only presidential hopeful to put solving the countrys economic problems on top of his agenda.
Mohammad-Reza Aref, also a reformist, has said that promoting an economy of resistance would top his economic agenda.
Priniciplists as well as independent hopefuls have also focused their attention on economy.
Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, who is affiliated with the principlist Coalition of Five, has promised to fight economic and financial corruption.
Campaign slogans have always revolved around the economy in the elections held so far in Iran. But we should not forget that Iran has been dealing with economic problems and sanctions ... for more than three decades. A candidate should recognize that and go for something more profound, Motahareh Jalali, a journalist, told Press TV when asked about the slogans of the presidential hopefuls.
Anyone who decides to run for president should first and foremost be a good manager. Being just and fair is the most important quality for a president, said an Iranian citizen.
I expect the next president to live up to his promises. We dont need slogans. We need someone who can run the country properly, another individual said.
Irans 11th presidential election will be held on June 14.
Presidential hopefuls can register from May 7 to 11. The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term in a national election and candidates must be vetted for qualification by the Guardian Council.
Meanwhile, a member of the Coalition of Three, Ali-Akbar Velayati, said the unilateral sanctions against Iran have not caused all the economic problems in the country. He said he would act wisely on economic issues and gradually change the source of Irans revenues to non-oil exports, if elected.
He stressed the importance of showing firm determination and gaining self-sufficiency to resolve the ongoing economic problems in the country.
Velayati, who served as Iran's Foreign Minister for 16 years until 1997, emphasized that Iran would achieve economic success through self-reliance and efforts to gain self-sufficiency in agricultural and industrial fields.
Velayati is also a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
The Coalition of Three also includes senior lawmaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel and Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf.
Meanwhile, another presidential hopeful Mohammad Reza Bahonar said sanctions are not the root cause of all the economic problems that the country is currently facing.
Bahonar, who is the vice-speaker of Irans Majlis, added that Iran can overcome the US-engineered sanctions by better planning.
The United States, Israel, and some of their allies have falsely accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program, with the US and the European Union using the unfounded claim as a pretext to impose illegal sanctions against Iran.
Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the international Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
By Press TV
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