Iran’s Interior Ministry Says Ready to Hold Run-Off Elections Electronically
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said his ministry is ready to hold the second round of competition among remaining parliamentary hopefuls by using electronic ballot boxes.
Speaking to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) on Tuesday night, Rahmani Fazli pointed to the reasons behind the cancellation of a plan to hold last week’s parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections electronically, saying that the Guardian Council (GC) was opposed to the plan.
“We fixed the issues that the GC had raised regarding electronic elections but finally, we were unable to convince them (about it),” he added.
The interior minister said his ministry is now ready to hold the run-off elections electronically, adding that the number of candidates in the run-off is lower and electronic voting can take place easily.
Back on January 20, Spokesman for the Guardian Council Nejatollah Ebrahimian had announced that the country called off plans to hold the two elections by using electronic voting machines.
One of the main reasons behind the decision is that the security of the new systems planned to be used for electronic elections was not confirmed by related authorities, he said at the time.
Countrywide parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections were held in Iran on Friday.
More than 60 percent of some 55 million eligible voters cast their ballots at around 53,000 polling stations across the country.
4,844 and 161 candidates ran for the parliament and the Assembly of Experts, respectively.
There are 290 seats in the Iranian parliament, elected by direct vote of people in nationwide election for four years.
The Assembly of Experts is also a high-ranking body that elects and oversees the activities of the leader of the Islamic Revolution.
Members of the 88-seat assembly are directly elected to office by people for an eight-year term. It holds biannual meetings to appoint a new chairman.
