TEHRAN — The runoff parliamentary elections in 11 constituencies will be held on September 11, the deputy interior minister in charge of elections announced on Sunday.

Jamal Orf said the Guardian Council, a body responsible for supervising the elections, has agreed to postpone the elections, Mehr reported.

He said the elections, which were scheduled to be held next month, were postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The first round of the parliamentary elections was held on February 21, when the principlist camp managed to capture a great majority of the seats in the 290-seat parliament.

The independents and reformists came second and third respectively.

A total of 7,148 candidates, including dozens of religious minorities, ran for the parliament. 

In capital Tehran, 1,453 candidates competed for 30 seats, all of which were captured by the principlists.

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli announced days after the parliamentary polls that 42% of people had voted in the elections.

“This was while we had the problem of coronavirus as well as political circumstances and issues such as the downing of the plane, the Aban (November) and Dey (January) incidents,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has thanked the Iranian nation for responding positively to the call for participation in the elections.

Addressing a session of advanced Islamic Jurisprudence (kharej–e Fiqh) on February 23, Ayatollah Khamenei expressed gratitude to the Iranians for their turnout in the elections, describing it as another great victory for the nation and another failure for the enemies.

Referring to the widespread negative propaganda by the enemies that aimed at disappointing people from taking part in the elections, the Leader said such propaganda had started a few months ago, and foreign media increased their negative propaganda in the past days under the pretext of the outbreak of a new virus.

MH/PA