An electoral official said nearly 55% of nominees for the Feb. 26 parliamentary elections have been approved, setting an all-time record.
Siyamak Rahpeyk, spokesman for the Central Elections Monitoring Board, a body under the supervision of Guardians Council, said on Saturday that an additional 1,500 hopefuls have been cleared to run in the election, along with 4,800 who were previously approved.
"With the new approvals, the total number of nominees approved for the Majlis election has reached 6,300," Tasnim News Agency quoted him as saying.
Statistically, the spokesman said nearly 20 people will compete for every seat of the parliament.
Rahpeyk said the number of nominees approved for the next Majlis is more than those who had registered to run for the previous Majlis, which was around 5,300.
Beginning the vetting process, the Executive Boards, under the supervision of Interior Ministry, carried out the preliminary vetting of a record 12,123 nominees and approved 90%.
Then the provincial Election Monitoring Boards evaluated the qualifications and announced on January 5 that 40% of nominees were qualified and 26% were disqualified, while they could not approve or disapprove the qualifications of 28% of nominees and 6% withdrew from the competition. In the last phase of the process, the Central Monitoring Board began to vet the nominees on January 17.
Rahpeyk said disqualified nominees can appeal from February 7 to 9 and their objections will be addressed from February 10 to 16.
Only nominees whose qualifications were approved by the provincial Election Monitoring Boards, but now have been regarded as disqualified can appeal. The final list of qualified nominees will be released on February 17 and they would be able to canvass for votes from February 18 to 25, 2016.
For the Assembly of Experts vote, a high-ranking body that elects and oversees the performance of the Leader of Islamic Revolution, Rahpeyk said the body is addressing objections of disqualified nominees and the final decisions will be announced on February 10.
The next elections to pick representatives for the fifth Assembly of Experts vote and the 10th Majlis elections will take place simultaneously on February 26. The Assembly of Experts and the Majlis will have 88 and 290 members respectively.
