Iran: Upcoming Parliament Elections To Be Mostly Electronic

Iran plans to hold the upcoming parliamentary elections using electronic voting machines in most parts of the country, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said.

Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Thursday, Rahmani Fazli said the Interior Ministry staged the 2017 presidential elections electronically in 140 counties.   

“Currently, we are in talks with the Guardian Council (about electronic voting),” he said, adding that much of the work for holding electronic elections is related to “authentication process”, over which the ministry has reached some agreements with the Guardian Council.

The parliamentary elections will be staged mostly electronically, he went on to say.

The parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections will be held simultaneously across the country in February 2020, according to the spokesman for Iran’s Interior Ministry.

Seyed Salman Samani said back in February that the 11th round of the parliamentary elections and the mid-term election of the Assembly of Experts will be held on February 21, 2020.

There are currently 290 seats in the Iranian parliament, known as Majlis, elected by direct vote of people in nationwide election 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.