Iranian reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi called for drafting a new constitution and submitting it to a popular referendum, in “free and fair” elections to change the structure of political power in Iran.
Mousavi, who has been under house arrest since February 2011, said in a statement published by his official website, Kalima, that the “bloody” events in recent months and years in Iran show that the slogan “implementing the constitution without concessions” – which he raised in the 2009 presidential elections – “It is no longer active,” stressing the need to take an “advanced step” on that invitation.
Mousavi criticized the “obstinacy” of the authorities and their insistence on repressive methods in the recent protests, instead of dialogue and persuasion. Pointing out that the country is facing increasing crises, Mousavi said, “The crisis of crises is the contradictory structure and basic system of the country that is unsustainable.”
Mousavi stresses the Iranians’ need and readiness for a radical change, the basic lines of which were drawn by the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom,” in reference to the main slogan of the Iranian women’s uprising that erupted after the death of the Kurdish young woman, Mahsa Amini, and became the focus of the latest public protests calling for the overthrow of the regime.
He urged Mousavi to work on implementing three proposals: firstly, drafting a new constitution, secondly holding a referendum on it in a “free and fair” vote, and thirdly forming a Constituent Assembly to finally adopt the new constitution. He called on all sectors of the Iranian people to formulate a basic charter. He thus proposes a new structure and system instead of the “Islamic Republic”, stressing that “the introduction of a new system (of this kind) in and of itself will shake the authoritarian power and push it to respond, because the source of strength is in the people, not in weapons and oppression.”
The recent protests pushed Iran into a deep crisis, as the death of Amini sparked pent-up anger for years among Iranians, due to problems from economic misery to discrimination against ethnic minorities, in addition to the authorities imposing strict social and political restrictions.
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