Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 27
By Fatih Karimov- Trend:
Early results indicate that the reformist candidates are leading the race for parliamentary seats in capital city of Tehran.
According to Iran's Elections Headquarters, 1.293 million votes have been counted so far, the state-run IRINN TV reported Feb. 27.
Mohammad Reza Aref, a former vice president, stands in first place in the Tehran ballot with 587,100 votes.
Ali Motahari, a conservative MP who took place in the reformists' list was in the second place with 515,650 votes.
The head of the conservative list, Gholamali Hadad Adel, a former parliament speaker, is the only candidate outside the reformists' list who takes place among the top 30 positions that would earn seats in parliament. He was placed seventh with 435,900 votes.
Almost 2.9-3 million people have participated in the election in Tehran, while some 6.6 million were eligible for voting, Iran's interior minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said, estimating that the voter turnout at Tehran city reaches 42 percent.
Elections were held for the tenth round of parliament and fifth round of the Assembly of Experts on Feb. 26. Iranians went to the polls in over 1,063 constituencies.
Currently, the Parliament has 290 representatives fourteen of whom represent the non-Muslim religious minorities. Women constitute about eight percent of the Parliament members in Iran.
A total of 4,844 hopefuls, including about 500 women, who were qualified among 12,000 registered candidates by the Guardian Council, were taking part in the race to take the parliamentary seats.
The elected candidates will serve from May 3, 2016 for a four-year term.
The Assembly of Experts will also see its 88 members elected by the people for another eight-year term.