Elections Kick Off in Iran

Having gone through a formal qualification process by Iran’s Constitutional Council, over 12,000 candidates, including dozens of Iranians from the religious minorities, are running for the parliament. There are 290 seats in the parliament up for grabs.

Around 61 million Iranian people are eligible to vote, including 3.5 million first-time voters.

The elections are held in around 60,000 polling stations across Iran.

According to the spokesperson for the Constitutional Council, about 75 percent of the applicants for the parliamentary seats have passed the screening process and have been allowed to run in the elections.

While an average of 52 candidates are running for each parliamentary seat, the religious minorities have fixed quotas in the legislature.

A total of 144 clergymen have also been chosen as the final candidates for the Assembly of Experts elections.

Around 800,000 executive elements working under the supervision of the Interior Ministry are involved in the elections and a total of 62,000 representatives of the candidates are also observing the process of voting at the polling stations.

Some 250,000 forces have been tasked with ensuring the security of elections on Friday.

There are currently 290 seats in the Iranian Parliament, known as Majlis, elected by direct vote of people in nationwide elections for four years.

The Assembly of Experts is a high-ranking body that elects and oversees the activities of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

Members of the assembly are directly elected to office by people for an eight-year term. It holds biannual meetings to appoint a new chairman.