Assembly of Experts election’s updated results: moderates leading

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28
By Fatih Karimov- Trend:

The updated results indicate that the candidates supported by moderates and reformists are leading in Assembly of Experts election in Iran's capital of Tehran.

Iran's Elections Headquarters announced that 3.889 million votes have been counted so far, the state-run IRINN TV reported Feb. 27.

The former moderate president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Discernment Council stands at the first place with 2.132 million votes.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ranks third with over 2.06 million votes.

Guardian Council's chief Ahmad Jannati is in the 15th place, near the level of 1.232 million votes.

According to the recent results, Mohammad Yazdi, a powerful conservative cleric, who heads the Assembly of Experts is losing. He ranked 17th place with about 1.159 votes.

Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, one of the most important ideologues of the hardliners in Iran, already failed to take place among 16 hopefuls for the assembly. He ranked 19th place with about 940,000 votes.

Tehran province has 16 seats in Assembly of Experts.

The Assembly of Experts is a key governmental body in Iran responsible for qualifying the country's supreme leader when a former leader dies or ceases to qualify.

Election was held for the tenth round of the parliament and the 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 MPs 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 rally 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.