Two Ministerial Nominees Win Iran’s Parliament Confidence Vote
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Iranian parliament on Sunday concluded a vote of confidence in President Hassan Rouhani’s picks to fill the three remaining vacancies in his cabinet, but only two were qualified by the lawmakers.
Beginning Sunday, October 27, the Iranian legislators started debating the qualifications of three ministerial nominees to lead ministries of Education, Sports and Youth as well as Sciences, Research, and Technology.
President Hassan Rouhani personally attended the parliament’s session today to defend his proposed nominees.
The lawmakers approved Reza Faraji Dana as the minister of sciences, research, and technology with 159 votes in favor, 70 against, and 32 abstentions from a total of 261 votes.
Furthermore, Ali Asghar Fani won the vote of confidence with 185 votes to 153 to become the country’s new education minister.
But President Rouhani’s third pick, a nominee to head the ministry of sports and youth, namely Seyed Reza Salehi Amiri, failed to receive a vote of confidence from the parliament.
Salehi Amiri garnered 107 votes in favor, 141 against, and 13 abstentions.
Of the total of 18 nominees in the president’s proposed list in August, 15 were earlier approved by legislators. However, three others failed to garner enough votes.
Rouhani had unveiled the list of his proposed cabinet members during his swearing-in ceremony on August 4.
He had a three-month time span to name replacements for those ministries that started the president’s term with caretakers in the absence of ministers.
