Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.21
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
The elections will mark another honorable date in the history of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Iran's President Hasan Rouhani said in an issued statement, Trend reports referring to the information portal of the Iranian Presidential Administration.
According to Rouhani, there were major differences between the parliaments in the country prior to the Islamic Revolution.
"But after the revolution there was no such separation. This reflects democracy," said Rouhani's statement.
The president said that the 11th parliament will be elected by the people and will be organized on the basis of the voice of its people.
According to the Iranian president, 98 percent of polling stations in Iran are connected to each other online.
Iran holds the 11th parliamentary elections and the 5th regular elections of the Expert Council on Feb. 21.
Some 16,033 people got registered as candidates for the parliamentary elections in Iran. Later some 30 percent of the candidates got disqualified by Iran's Guardian Council. More than 7,100 candidates are running for 290 seats in the Iranian parliamentary elections. There are 57,918,000 eligible voters in the ongoing parliamentary elections.
The elections are held in 208 constituencies and 54,000 polling stations, where the passports are being stamped.
Parliamentary candidates in Iran are usually aligned with reformists or conservatives, also referred to as "principlists". These are the two main political currents.
The conservatives are traditionally seen as supportive of greater state intervention, socially and economically, and most of them did not support the nuclear deal and negotiations with the US.
On the other hand, reformists pushed for the nuclear deal and are seen to be supportive of a more open-market economy.
The country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani have called for a high voter turnout, and asked the public to come together.