Iranians start voting in parliamentary elections amid US animosity

Iranians have started casting their votes in Iran’s 11th parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections.

Polling stations across the country opened at 8:00 a.m. (0430 GMT) on Friday.

Images shared on social media showed long lines of people standing in front of polling stations shortly before the voting began. 

Campaigns officially started Thursday last week and the candidates had one week to win the people’s support for their candidacy.

The voting on Friday comes after a 24-hour silence period in which candidates were prohibited from campaign activities.

Iran ends week-long campaigning for parliamentary electionsCampaigning has officially ended for Iran

More than 7,000 candidates are competing to enter the parliament. A winning candidate must have at least 20 percent of the votes cast in their constituency in order to become lawmaker for a four-year term.

A total of 57,918,000 people are eligible to cast their ballots. There would be one lawmaker at Majlis per each 190,000-strong segment of the Iranian population.

Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said Wednesday that a total of 55,000 polling stations and over 200 constituencies have been prepared across the country’s 31 provinces for the people to cast their votes.