Voting under way in Iran parliamentary races
Iranians headed to the polls Friday to cast ballots in parliamentary runoff elections to decide 82 seats. The first round of elections were held in March with 204 parliamentary races being settled. It was a decisive victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his hard-line allies. Polling is scheduled to end at 6 p.m. (9:30 a.m. ET) unless more time is needed. The reformists suffered a setback before last month's election when 70 percent of their candidates were disqualified. Iran's conservative Guardian Council screened candidates and disqualified about 1,700 it deemed unsuitable, mostly reformists. The Guardian Council is an unelected body of six high clerics appointed by supreme religious leaders and six lawyers nominated by the head of the judiciary branch. Iran is scheduled to hold its presidential election in the spring of 2009. Ahmadinejad has not announced whether he'll run for a second term. |
