40 More Parliamentary Candidates Approved; Final Count: 6,340

The spokesperson for the Central Supervisory Board on Elections announced that with the approval of 40 more candidates, the total number of candidates for the parliamentary elections has reached 6,340. Siamak Rahpeyk stated on the evening of Monday, February 15, in an interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting that the Guardian Council, after reviewing the objections of 150 disqualified candidates, has approved the qualifications of 40 of them. The Guardian Council had announced that the final stage of the results of the qualification review of the parliamentary candidates would be submitted to the Ministry of Interior on Monday evening. However, no report has yet been published regarding the announcement of this list to the Ministry of Interior. Hossein Ali Amiri, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, had reported on Tuesday, February 14, that the Guardian Council approved 6,175 candidates, which is 51% of the candidates, and disqualified 5,252 candidates. Comparing this data with the 40 candidates who have recently been approved, the number of candidates for the parliamentary elections announced by the Ministry of Interior is 125 less than the number announced by the Guardian Council. Previously, officials from the Guardian Council had stated that the final stage of the qualification review for the elections, which began on February 14, only pertains to candidates who had previously been approved by the supervisory and executive boards and then disqualified by the Guardian Council. Nevertheless, Hossein Marashi, a member of the Reformists' Policy Council, attributed the delay in publishing the final list of this group to the possibility of approving additional candidates. Some reformists had also previously stated that the names of several candidates from this group were neither among those approved nor among those disqualified. Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, Iran's Minister of Interior, announced that despite the approval of 1,500 candidates during the complaint review stage, the electoral competition is still 'not equal and balanced.' Comparing the statistics announced by the Deputy Minister of Interior and the percentage of disqualified candidates in previous periods, the tenth parliamentary elections will have the highest disqualification ratio compared to previous periods. In the first parliamentary elections, 46% were disqualified, in the second 20%, in the third 19%, in the fourth 28%, in the fifth 39%, in the sixth 26%, in the seventh 44%, in the eighth 37%, and in the ninth 35% of candidates were disqualified. However, the spokesperson for the Central Supervisory Board on Elections announced on February 6 that 1,500 disqualified candidates had been approved, adding that thus the percentage of approved candidates had increased from 40% of registrants to 55%.