Election officials: Over 31mn ballots used; voter turnout at 64.4%

Iran’s election officials announce one hour before the end of the voting time for the ninth parliamentary election that an early ballot count shows a 64.6-percent voter turnout, Press TV report.

The 9th Majlis (parliamentary) election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution officially started across the country at 08:00 local time on Friday, and was initially scheduled to continue until 18:00.

People’s overwhelming turnout, however, prompted officials to extend the original voting time by four hours in two stages: first to 21:00 local time and then to 22:00.

An early ballot count, according to officials, showed that more than 31 million ballots were used by 21:00 local time, indicating an overall voter turnout of 64.6 percent.

Most provinces requested a voting time extension and more ballot paper with Kordestan province in west Iran among the provinces that requested more ballot paper.

Over 48 million Iranian voters are eligible to cast their ballots with 3.9 million people casting their votes for the first time.

More than 5,400 registered to run in the race for the 290 parliamentary seats. Iran’s Guardian Council, which is charged with supervising the elections, approved the competence of more than 3,400 hopefuls.