E-Voting in Iran's City Council Polls

A lawmaker said the May 19 city council polls will be held electronically in one-sixth of the polling stations across the country.

“There will be around 66,000 stations, in 11,000 of which ballot boxes will be replaced by voting machines,” Mohammad Mahmoudi also told ICANA on Friday, adding that the stations will cover one-third of those eligible to vote.

In the 2013 city council votes, over 48 million Iranians were eligible to cast votes.

E-polling helps minimize irregularities, cut costs and reduce the time needed to count the votes from several days to half a day.

On security concerns that prevented electronic voting in this year’s Majlis elections, Mahmoudi said the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of holding elections, and three related authorities have confirmed the security of voting machines. Interior Ministry is the organizer of all Iranian elections, but the hopefuls for councils are vetted by a special board of Majlis lawmakers, which will also oversee the polls.

This is while for the presidential, parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections, the Guardians Council is in charge of vetting the candidates and supervising the polls.

Candidates will have one week to sign up from March 20 to 26 and their campaign period is May 11-17.