Iran religious minorities lawmakers elected

Iran’s Interior Ministry has released the names of elected lawmakers representing religious minorities in the country.

According to the final results announced by the ministry on Monday, Siamak More Sedeq won the parliamentary seat for the Jewish constituency with 2,449 votes.

Esfandiyar Ekhtiyari was announced as the elected lawmaker for the Zoroastrian constituency after he gained 3,966 votes.

The ministry said Younatan Betkolia was elected as the lawmaker representing the Assyrians and Chaldeans with 2,212 votes.

Georgik Abrahamian was elected representative of south Iran Christians with 2,290 votes while Karen Khanleri was picked as lawmaker for the religious minority in the north with 8,631 votes.

According to Article 12 of Iran’s Election Law, elections related to Zoroastrian, Jewish, Assyrian, Chaldean, and Armenian religious minorities in northern parts of Iran are centered in Tehran Governorate.

Meanwhile, elections for Armenians living in south Iran are centered in Isfahan Governorate and are held by governors and district officials of those regions where the aforesaid minorities live.

At present, out of 290 seats in the Iranian Parliament (Majlis), five lawmakers are allotted to religious minorities. Zoroastrians and Jews, each have one representative, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians have one representative overall, and Christians living in the south and north of Iran, each have one representative in Majlis.

Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli on Monday announced the end of vote counting in the 10th parliamentary and 5th Assembly of Experts elections with an overall turnout of 62 percent nationwide.

The Iranian minister noted that the Guardian Council will soon start work to confirm the election results.

At least 33 million out of the 55 million eligible voters took part in the two votes on Friday.