Iran Press/Iran news: Ali Larijani, after attending the Qom province election headquarters and casting his ballot, described the Parliamentary election as fateful and said: "The votes of the Iranian people have two results; It provides political and security backing for the country."
Larijani added: "A high turnout will lead to a boost in the management of the country and Iran's politics and security will be strengthened."
He also referred to the US and Western media efforts to dissuade the Iranian public from voting, adding: "They did everything they could to undermine morale and lower the turnout of voters."
Larijani stressed: "With the strong popular support and the high turnout, the efficiency will increase and the enemies will retreat, so when the popular vote goes up, the enemies will withdraw their demands."
The senior parliamentarian added: "The parliament is one of the main pillars and symbol of democracy; it has a high status in the country and plays a key role in legislation and determining the country's main decisions, including the budget debate. The government may provide funding for the budget, but the primary decisions about the budget will be made in the parliament (Majlis). That is the responsibility of the legislative branch."
Larijani said: "If people go to the polling booths and make the right choice, they will have an effective and powerful parliament, which solves problems and disappoints the enemy, dashing its hope."
Larijani also recounted some of the main achievements of the 10th Parliament in legislation and oversight.
Larijani as the current speaker, who has represented the people of Qom in parliament for many years, is leaving the Majlis and not contesting today's parliamentary election.
The 11th round of parliamentary elections and the first midterm Assembly of Experts' elections kicked off at 8 am local time in Tehran and throughout the nation.
According to Jamal Orf, the deputy Interior Minister and the head of the country’s election headquarters, a total of 57,918,000 Iranians are eligible to participate in the parliamentary elections on Friday. A little more than 29 million voters are men and 28,800,000 are women.
Jamal Orf, the deputy Interior Minister and the head of the country’s election headquarters, said that 2,900,000 of this figure are potential first-time voters.
The eligible age for voting in Iran has been 18 since January 2007.
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Photo: people enthusiastically cast their votes in Tehran
