Iranians to vote in parliamentary run-off elections for 69 seats

Iran will hold the second round of the tenth Majlis (parliament) elections in mid-April to choose parliamentarians for the remaining 69 vacant seats, an Iranian Interior Ministry official announced on Tuesday.

In the first round of the elections held on Feb. 26, 221 out of the 290 seats were filled and the fate of 69 others will be decided in the run-off contests with 138 candidates, Pour Ali Motlaq was quoted as saying by state IRIB TV.

According to data available from the local media, the reformists and moderates have gained ground in Iran's Friday vote for Majlis, but none of the heavy weight political groups have been able to seize the majority in the first round.

In the ninth Majlis elections on March 2012, the principlists or the loyalists to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and powerful clerics had won the majority of about 75 percent in the first round of elections.

On Monday, Iran's Interior Ministry announced the end of vote counts on Iran's two recent key elections of the parliament and Assembly of Experts.

The Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said that the turnout, out of about 55 million eligible voters, was around 50 percent in the capital Tehran and some 62 percent across the country.

The turnout in the first round of parliamentary elections in the country in 2012 was more than 64 percent out of some 48 million eligible voters. Endit