STORY: Over 15,000 candidates to run for parliament seats in Iran
SHOOTING TIME: Feb. 28, 2024
DATELINE: March. 1, 2024
LENGTH: 0:03:03
LOCATION: Tehran
CATEGORY: POLITICS

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the press conference

STORYLINE:

More than 15,000 candidates from different walks of life would compete for the Iranian parliament's 290 seats in the upcoming elections, said Iran's Constitutional Council spokesman Hadi Tahan Nazif on Wednesday.
   
Nazif made the remarks at a press conference in the Iranian capital Tehran, ahead of the 12th parliamentary and sixth Assembly of Experts elections which will be held in the country on Friday.
   
According to Nazif, candidates must be between 30 and 75 years old, and nearly 75 percent of those registered are qualified to compete in the elections.
   
Meanwhile, almost 400 candidates were born in the 1990s and over 3,000 in the 1980s, and women constitute 13 percent of the candidates.
   
He stressed candidates are from different walks of life, including lawyers, judges, teachers, and physicians.

The spokesman said the Constitutional Council has trained about 230,000 Iranians to serve as monitors and observers at nearly 60,000 polling stations across the country during the elections.
   
"Religious minorities have had their own seats in the Iranian parliament ever since the victory of the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution," he noted.
   
A total of 144 candidates will compete for the eight-year-termed Assembly of Experts. The 88-member body is in charge of overseeing the activities of Iran's supreme leader and is empowered to designate and dismiss the supreme leader of Iran.
   
Nazif said 250,000 forces had been tasked with ensuring security in the elections.

A total of 61.17 million people meet the eligibility criteria for voting in the two elections, said Iran's Election Office earlier this month, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Tehran.
(XHTV)