Iran's Reform Movement, which holds the parliamentary majority, was dealt a severe blow May 26. Ali Motahari, an independent candidate endorsed by the camp, lost the race for deputy speaker, a position he had firmly maintained for three consecutive years. The outspoken lawmaker, known for his ferocious attacks on hard-liners, failed to garner enough votes and was replaced by the conservative camp's candidate, Abdurreza Mesri. Mesri had served as minister for welfare in ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Cabinet from October 2006 to September 2009. 

Top Reformist figures largely blamed the defeat on Mohammad Reza Aref, leader of the “Hope” coalition of Reformist and centrist candidates for parliament. They accused him of being too passive during the campaign for parliament's presiding board. Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi, secretary-general of the Executives of Construction Party — the Reform Movement's largest political group — was among the very first who took aim at Aref in a sarcastic tweet: "Thanks to the relentless efforts put forward by Mr. Aref and his entourage, Ali Motahari lost the deputy speaker post."

Less than a month later, the Reformists received yet another blow. Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh lost the chairmanship of the powerful National Security and Foreign Policy Commission to hard-line cleric Mojtaba Zonnouri in an internal vote.

In the past three years, the Reform Movement has come under mounting pressure both from voters and internal critics for what is seen as a disappointing record. The camp’s lack of a coherent and transparent procedure in endorsing its list of candidates for the 2016 parliamentary polls seems to have laid the foundation for the current deep mistrust. The handling of the list triggered doubts as to whether the lawmakers who found their way into parliament under the camp's umbrella genuinely shared the key tenets of the pro-Reform Movement. Later, the performance of the Reformist-majority City Council of Tehran, in the lengthy process of appointing the mayor, added to the complications facing the embattled camp.