Date of Iranian President’s Swearing-In Ceremony Changed, MP Says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The date of the swearing-in ceremony for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was re-elected for a second term by a landslide in May, has changed, a lawmaker announced.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Behrouz Nemati, a member of the parliament’s presiding board, said President Rouhani was previously slated to take the oath of office at an open session of the parliament on August 6.
The parliamentarian added that the date of the ceremony has changed because of certain considerations.
He said the exact date of the event will be announced to the public after a final decision is made in the near future.
The inaugural ceremony will be held four or five days after the endorsement of Rouhani’s presidency by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.
Following the swearing-in ceremony, the president will have two weeks to submit his new cabinet to the parliament for a vote of confidence.
In Iran’s presidential election on May 19, Rouhani garnered 23,549,616 votes from a total of 41,220,131 ballots. The runner-up, Ebrahim Raisi, secured 38.5% of the votes.
No sitting president in Iran has failed to win a second term since 1981.
During the previous presidential election in June 2013, Rouhani had emerged victorious by winning 50.7 percent of a total of over 36 million votes. He had won more than three times as many votes as his closest challenger.
