Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported on Tuesday that runoff elections for parliament, currently scheduled for April 17, could be delayed until August or September due to the coronavirus. Iran’s insistence on holding its parliamentary election in February has been cited as one of the reasons the epidemic spread so quickly
“If the coronavirus conditions in the country remain in the same way until April 17, the date of the second round of elections in the regions subject to runoff will be delayed. For example, it might be postponed until Shahrivar,” Ali Rabiee, a spokesman for the Iranian government, told Tasnim.
Shahrivar is a month on the Iranian calendar that runs from August 22 to September 21.
One of the parliamentarians elected in February, Fatemeh Rahbar, has died from the coronavirus. The government wants her replacement to be elected during the next presidential election in 2021, according to Rabiee.
The Iranian system calls for runoff elections if candidates do not secure enough votes to win on the first round. Over 20 percent of the vote is generally needed to claim an immediate victory.
Low turnout means more runoffs are needed, and turnout was historically low this year – the worst since the 1979 Islamist revolution.
Many Iranians deliberately boycotted what they denounced as a rigged vote where only “hardliners” could win. Candidates in Iran are “screened” by a clerical body called the Guardian Council that disqualifies most of the reformers. In the 2020 parliamentary election, 9,000 candidates were disqualified, while 7,148 were approved.
The Iranian regime kept the coronavirus as quiet as possible and proceeded with the election to avoid further embarrassment. Turnout was so low that election officials decided not to announce it. At least a dozen seats appeared to require runoff elections after February voting was complete.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.