The counting of votes for the elections of the Islamic Council and the Council of Experts continues in Iran, and at the same time, the local Iranian media have reported the level of voter turnout and the conservative candidates in the lead.
After the nationwide protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman in police custody, Irshad Iran, this is the first time that elections are held in that country.
Polling stations across Iran will remain open until early Friday, and Iran’s state television reported the start of vote counting on Saturday.
In this election, more or less 15,200 candidates are competing for 290 seats in the Islamic Council of Iran and 144 other candidates are competing for seats in the 88-member Assembly of Experts.
The Assembly of Experts is one of the most important structures in the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
A number of candidates for the Majlis Khabargan, including Hassan Rouhani, the former president of Iran, have not been identified as eligible to compete for the seat of the Majlis Khabargan.
The level of voter participation in these elections was low and according to the Fars news agency, slightly more than 40 percent of the 61 million Iranian voters participated in these elections. In the previous elections of the Islamic Council of Iran, which were held in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, the voter turnout was 42.57 percent.
However, Ebrahim Raisi, the president of Iran, welcomed the participation of the Iranian people in the elections and without mentioning the name of Kishor, he called Kishor’s historical failure and other enemies.
Before a candidate can compete in the elections of the Iranian Majlis Shura, they must be approved by the Guardian Council. The members of the Guardian Council are appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Although Khamenei had encouraged the Iranian people to participate in the elections, a large number of Iranian voters did not participate in these elections. Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran and one of the reformist figures, refused to participate in the elections.