Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 8 /Trend T.Konyayeva, T.Jafarov/
The registration of candidates for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Iran will start on Dec. 24 and will run during a week in accordance with the legislation, IRIB News quoted Iranian Election Commission Chairman Sulat Mortazari as saying.
Mortazari made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the pre-election headquarters in Tehran province.
He called on candidates not to delay pre-election activities and campaigns, otherwise penalties will be imposed on them.
The ninth parliamentary elections are scheduled for March 2012. Some parties have launched pre-election activities, although six months have left until elections. Pre-election headquarters in Tehran province will begin functioning on October 12.
The Iranian parliament has 290 members but it is considering a project for increasing the number of MPs. If the Commission on Parliamentary Affairs completes the project and presents it to the Parliament for approval during two months, more 20 people will take seats in the parliament by the forthcoming elections in March.
Some officials oppose engaging the reformists in the elections while others admit their participation under two conditions - not to organize post-electoral actions and to obey fully Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei said late August the elections should be well safeguarded as "a divine blessing". Later, he noted that the elections pose potential risk to the country's security and called for national unity.
Iran's political system is based on the conservatives and reformists. At the moment the Conservatives are in power in Iran.