A member of the special parliamentary board in charge of overseeing the May 19 city council elections said plans for e-voting in 11,000 polling stations, out of the total of 66,000, have been finalized.
Mohammad Javad Kolivand made the statement in a talk with ICANA on Tuesday, after a meeting of the board, the organizer of Iranian elections, namely the Interior Ministry, and the Guardians Council, which is tasked with overseeing the presidential, Majlis and Experts Assembly elections.
The Majlis board comprises three members of the Councils and Internal Affairs Commission and two from Majlis Article 90 Commission.
The first e-polling in the Iranian elections will cover one-third of eligible voters for the elections, which will be held concurrent with the presidential polls.
Abolfazl Aboutorabi, another member of the board, said on Saturday domestically-designed machines built to replace ballot boxes have been successfully tested. Last year, a similar plan was discussed in details for the 2016 Majlis elections, but security concerns blocked the path.
Signing up for the city council votes in over 1,200 cities and 39,000 villages will last from March 13 to 19 and the campaigning period is May 11-17. With less than four months left to the elections, the Interior Ministry is still negotiating with the Guardians Council to obtain its approval for e-polling in presidential votes.
E-voting helps minimize irregularities, trim costs and reduce the time needed to count the ballots from several days to hours.
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