Ahmadinejad’s sister registers for parliamentary elections

Parvin Ahmadinejad, the sister of President Ahmadinejad, registered for parliamentary election on Friday, Mehr reported.

Parvin Ahmadinejad, who is currently a member of Tehran City Council, told the Mehr News Agency that she is fielding her candidacy for the March parliamentary elections from Garmsar (Semnan Province).

On the sitting parliament's attempt to impeach the president, she said that "our president is a justice-seeker and I do not agree with his impeachment."

Answering a question about the possibility of her inclusion in the principlists' list of candidates, she just said she contests to defend the discourse of Islamic Revolution, martyrs, Islamic values and Imam' ideals

Parvin Ahmadinejad is probably a candidate of the Islamic Revolution Resilience Front for the elections.

"The Resilience Front is synonymous with the Islamic Revolution Front. We are all supporters of the government," she said.

Earlier it was reported that more than 2,460 individuals have so far registered for the preliminary candidacy in the upcoming parliamentary elections. The ninth parliamentary elections are scheduled to be held on March 2, 2012.

Meanwhile, the deputy head of the Election Headquarters, Hassan Ali Nouri, told reporters that among the early candidates are 2,307 male and 156 female individuals. He added that Tehran's constituency had the highest rates with a record of 389 registrations.

Registration for the parliamentary elections began with an opening ceremony attended by Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar and several other senior Iranian officials in Tehran on Saturday.

Candidates for the next elections have until December 30, 2011 to register. Officials have announced that the deadline will most probably not be extended. The Guardian Council, which is tasked with supervising the election, will then evaluate the competence of those who have registered as preliminary candidates.

The registrars must adhere to Iran's Constitution and the principles of the Islamic establishment. They must also hold at least a master's college degree or an equivalent and be aged between 30 and 75.

The principlist bloc won a majority of seats in the 275-seat legislature in the last parliamentary elections in Iran, which were held in 2008.


Edited by: S. Isayev