[ad_1]
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Candidates for Iran’s parliament started campaigning Thursday within the nation’s first election for the reason that bloody crackdown on the 2022 nationwide protests that adopted the demise of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.
State tv mentioned 15,200 candidates will compete for a four-year time period within the 290-seat chamber that hardliners have managed for 20 years.
That may be a document quantity and greater than twice the candidates who contested the 2020 election, when voter turnout was simply over 42%, the bottom since 1979.
Amini died on Sept. 16, 2022, after her arrest by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the nation’s strict scarf regulation that compelled girls to cowl their hair and whole our bodies. The protests shortly escalated into calls to overthrow Iran’s clerical rulers. Within the extreme crackdown that adopted, over 500 individuals had been killed and almost 20,000 arrested, based on human rights activists in Iran.
On Wednesday, the Guardian Council election watchdog despatched the names of the 15,200 certified candidates to the inside ministry, which holds the election. Any candidate for elections in Iran should be accepted by the Council, a 12-member clerical physique, half of whom are straight appointed by the supreme chief.
The candidates embrace 1,713 girls, which is greater than double the 819 who competed in 2020.
The election will probably be held March 1, and the brand new parliament will convene in late Might.
Present parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf will run for election from his hometown, a constituency within the distant northeast, after successful a seat within the capital Tehran 4 years in the past. Such a change in districts normally signifies shrinking reputation. Lately, his fellow hardline critics often accused him of ignoring the rights of different parliament members and disregarding reviews of corruption whereas he was Tehran mayor.
Incumbent meeting member President Ebrahim Raisi will search reelection to the meeting in a distant constituency in South Khorasan province, competing in opposition to a low-profile cleric.
In a simultaneous election, 144 clerics will compete for the all-cleric 88-seat Meeting of Consultants that capabilities as an advisory physique to Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has last say on all state issues. Their time period of service is eight years.
Below Iran’s structure, the meeting screens the nation’s supreme chief and chooses his successor. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will probably be 85 in April. He has been supreme chief for 34 years.
The Related Press
[ad_2]
Source link
