Iran’s former reformist President Mohammad Khatami has called on Iranians not to boycott the February 2020 Parliamentary elections.

Khatami, who was Iran’s President from 1997 to 2005, said in a statement on his own media platform, Khatami Media, “Disgruntled voters and reformists should make a sacrifice for Iran and go to the polls to prevent a major threat” to the country’s existence.

Meanwhile, he called on the government to “guarantee civil liberties.”

Khatami has been facing many limitations that restricted his political activity and media presence since 2014.

The former President supported former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi in the controversial 2009 Presidential election.

Referring to the disillusionment that dissuaded some members of the younger generation of Iranian population from taking part in elections, Khatami suggested: “We should face the future and do not continue to dwell in the past.”

Khatami had warned the government earlier that “if people are disappointed, those who want a regime change might find an opportunity for success.”

Thousand of demonstrators chanted slogans during major demonstrations in early 2018 to voice their disappointment of both the conservatives and reformists in the Iranian political establishment.