BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 24
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Following the 11th parliamentary elections held on Feb. 21, 57 out of 167 members of the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who had put forward candidacy, retained their mandate, Trend reports to Iranian media.
The Iranian Parliament has 290 seats. However, currently, there are 285 MPs. This is due to the fact that two of the MPs passed away during their mandate, one became a member of Iran's Guardian Council, one became a deputy of Iran's Industry, Mine and Trade Minister and one was appointed the Iranian ambassador to Russia.
15 of the current parliament's members will participate in the second round of the elections, scheduled for April 17. Twelve seats remained vacant following the first round of the elections. Also 226 conservatives, 16 reformists, 36 independent candidates have been elected to the parliament.
Forty of the current 285 MPs did not apply to participate in the elections, applications of 70 other MPs were not approved and the remaining eight withdrew their candidacy.
Iran's Minister of Internal Affairs Abdolreza Rahmani earlier said at a press conference that voter turnout in the 11th parliamentary elections and the 5th regular elections of the Expert Council in Iran stood at 42 percent.
Abdolreza Rahmani noted that a total of 24,512,404 people took part in the elections, with 48 percent being women and 52 percent being men.
Conservatives obtained absolute majority in the Iranian Parliament.