Mir-Hossein Mousavi he called "an alms-based economy". Mousavi criticized the then-current conservative President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for his alleged economic mismanagement, asking, when Iran "was making profits from the high prices of oil, did he (Ahmadinejad) envisage a situation when the prices would fall?" On 16 March 2009, the former Iranian President Khatami withdrew from the election in support of Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Mousavi ran as an independent Principled Reformist candidate. Although he is one of the original founders of the Iranian reformist camp, he shares many principles of the conservatives. Many reformist parties, among them reformist Islamic Iranian Participation Front, whose main candidate
Timeline of the 2009 Iranian election protests watched by about 90,000 spectators and for the sixth straight time ended in a tie. The spectators accused the teams of collusion. They also chanted "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein" in support of the opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. The Slogans could be heard on State TV. Police had previously warned against any political activity, even cutting off cellphone service in the area, and some people were reportedly arrested. Unrelated to the Tehran derby, 18 students who were part of a pro-democracy movement were arrested in Tehran. The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) wrote a letter to Ayatollah