Religious Minorities To Send 14 Representatives To 9th Majlis

Tehran, March 3, IRNA – Iranian religious minorities will send 14 representatives to the next parliament, an elections headquarters official said here Friday. Hassanali Nouri said according to the Iranian Constitution, religious minorities enjoy all public rights given to other members of the society. He also noted that Zoroastrians, Jews, Armenians both in south and north of the country, Assyrians and Caledonians each have one representative in the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis). The religious minorities will cast their votes in ballot boxes specially designated to them simultaneous with other Iranians, the official added. Over 48 million Iranians are eligible to vote in 46,924 polling stations nationwide for the 9th parliamentary election which started at eight o’clock local time. In the two provinces of Khorassan Razavi and Kurdestan, people will also cast votes for by-elections for the fourth round of the Experts Assembly./end