Iran starts campaign for parliamentary run-off elections

Iranian candidates on Thursday began a one-week campaign for the upcoming parliamentary run-off elections.

The second round of the tenth Majlis (parliament) elections in Iran will be held on April 29 to choose parliamentarians for the remaining 69 vacant seats, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the first round of the elections held on February 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.

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

In capital Tehran, all the 30 seats available in the Majlis have gone to the reformists and moderates.

In the ninth Majlis elections in March 2012, 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.

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

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.

--IANS

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