Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to Ruhollah Khomeini. This led to the establishment of Expediency Discernment Council, which later he chaired the council. He had an active role in Iran–Contra affair, which was divulged by Mehdi Hashemi and failed. Mehdi Hashemi was executed but Rafsanjani was the loser at internal dimension. In October 1981 presidential election, when he voted to Ali Khamenei, he said it's vote of "Imam (Khomeini), clerics and the parliament". During differences between Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Khamenei, Hashemi cleverly managed to keep the position favor or against these two perspectives and take the middle position. According to Bahman Bakhtiari, at
Mostafa Kavakebian 2000. He was the leader of the 'Popular Reformist Coalition' that to running on 2004 and 2008 legislative election. He was a member of reformist faction in the Parliament. He founded Popular Coalition of Supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi in the 2009 Iranian presidential election. Before he founded his party, he was the deputy leader of the 'Unity Party'. He is also the editor-in-chief of "Mardomsalari" newspaper. He was seeking to keep his seat in the 2012 election as leader of the Democratic Coalition of Reformists, but was not elected. On 25 January 2013, Kavakebian was nominated as a candidate for