GC Approves Eligibility Of 70 percent Of Candidates

Tehran, Feb 22, IRNA – Eligibility of over 70 percent of applicants to take part in parliamentary election has been approved by the Guardian Council (GC), spokesman for the constitutional body Abbas Kadkhodaei said on Tuesday. He said that the GC approved candidacy of 3,444 applicants for the parliamentary election and forwarded the list of eligible candidates to the Interior Ministry. Kadkhodaei said that the candidates are representing different political parties, adding that the election will be lively due to variety of political affiliations. Some 5.382 had applied for candidacy of whom 333 people withdrew their applications later and the executive board did not confirm eligibility of 172 applicants. Eligibility of 4,877 applicants were examined by the supervisory board in three stages of whom 3,444 candidates were confirmed eligible to run for the election. Election campaign will start from Thursday February 23 for a week and will finish 24 hours ahead of the general election slated for Friday March 3./end