Mehdi Karroubi, former parliament speaker and head of a prominent reformist party, said that he was expecting reformist forces to win a "sizable portion" of seats in the elections March 14, 2008. "They've understood the mistakes of the past, like division and calls for boycott," Karroubi said in an interview.

"People are already preparing to register as candidates and ensure a high voter turnout. The atmosphere is completely different to [the last parliamentary elections] four years ago," he said.

And the reformists have quite a recovery to make. In their heyday five years ago, the reformists controlled both the presidency under Mohammad Khatami and parliament. Then parliament went to the conservatives in a hugely controversial 2004 election when 2,300 reformist candidates were disqualified and subsequently failed to mobilize their voters.

Their defeat became complete in 2005 when conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidential election, with the reformists paying a spectacular price for failing to unite around a single candidate.

This time, however, expectations are mounting that the various political factions loyal to leaders such as Karroubi himself, Khatami, and even the former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani will unite behind a single ticket.

"When people are in power they fall out, but when they are in opposition they unify," he said wryly.

Karroubi said that a host of former reformist ministers, ambassadors, and officials who have been left out in the cold since Ahmadinejad took power were biding their time and preparing for the 2008 vote.

"They are waiting for the parliamentary elections and presidential vote [in 2009]. They are waiting to get back their power," said Karroubi.

Karroubi, a former confidante of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is a hugely charismatic cleric who retains a high profile through his newspaper and political party, both named Etemad-e Melli (national confidence).

Still energetic aged 70, he waves his hands and swings around in his seat animatedly to make a point. But his natural optimism is also tempered by the knowledge of the forces that the reformists must fight against.

Reformist hopes remain conditional on the hardline vetting body the Council of Guardians not repeating its 2004 move of disqualifying thousands of moderate candidates this time round.

Karroubi noted pointedly the importance of newspapers ("some of ours have been closed down"), local authorities ("in which we have no officials"), and mosques (the sermons are an "essential tool" to deliver the electoral message). He remains one of the most outspoken of Iran's reformists.

After he was knocked out in the first round of the 2005 presidential vote, Karroubi took the highly unusual step of sending an open letter to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei complaining of irregularities.

But he was at pains to emphasize that Iran's reformists (Eslahtaleban) work "within the system" of the Islamic republic and the difference with conservatives (Osulgharan) is one of interpretation.

The aim of reformists is to have "full implementation of the Iranian constitution," he said, in particular the clause "to have a religious country with the officials elected by the will of the people."

He eschewed making any explicit criticism of Ahmadinejad - under fire in the reformist press for his expansionary economic policies - but insists that his forces have a right to criticize the executive when appropriate.

"They [reformists] are working within this system. But at the same time they might criticize what is happening." -AFP