The 10th Parliament of Iran opened today on May 28, 2016, with the presence of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Head of the Judiciary Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani, Head of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, ministers, foreign ambassadors and senior military officials.
The ceremony began with recitation of Holy Quran, and Deputy Parliament Speaker for Executive Affairs Ali Afrashteh delivered a speech presenting a comprehensive report for further improvement of measures during the new Parliament.
Afrashteh underlined the need for new technical updates of the Parliament, including system software updates, voting and meetings management, requirements of systems analysis, design and production in the related areas.
Reform in Parliament organizational structure aimed at creating institutional body of the Parliament, Parliament’s more effective presence in international events and promoting parliamentary diplomacy were among his other topics.
The oldest member of the new Parliament, 72-year old reformist Abdolreza Hashem Zayi who is considered as the head of Board of the 10th Parliment, described JCPOA as an important issue raised during the 9th Parliament. “JCPOA in itself contains valuable and debatable elements, however beyond that is the Iranian people's will and authority on the implementation of the deal."
Welcoming the younger generation in the Parliament, Hashem Zayi said Iranian nation’s vote for women, youth and social elites holds a social signification which calls for the withdrawal from the closed circle of management and execution and injecting a new spirit into the body of administration.
Meanwhile, the other members of the Board of Diretors of the 10th Parliament include Seyyed Mostafa Zolghadr as the Deputy Diretor, Seyyedeh Fatemeh Hosseini as the First Secretary and Somayeh Mahmoudi as the Second Secretary.
The message of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei was also read to the new members of Iran's legislative body.
Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli then presented a report on the 10th Parliamentary elections of Feb. 26which he said was based on article six of the Constitution that "mandates popular elections for the presidency and the parliament.”
He considered the key principles for holding elections in Iran as maximum participation, respecting rights of people, complete impartiality, law-abiding and maintaining perfect security.
He hailed the voters’ turnout for the Feb. 26 elections as ‘exemplary’, and informed the present lawmakers of the statistical figures of the parliamentary elections:
1. Formation of elections HQ 10 months prior to elections of Feb. 26, with 40 sessions held at the central office
2. Due to the concurrency of 10th parliamentary and 5th Assembly of Experts elections, as well as special competitive conditions among various political leanings, terrorist groups and foreign spy agencies intended to sabotage the elections by creating insecurity in the country; as a result, 6 months prior to elections, the constituencies with the possibility of tension and conflict were pinpointed and necessary arrangements were made to maintain security, including 250,000 security and military forces, 40 helicopters, 4 aircraft and 4 vessels to expedite the transfer of ballot boxes.
3. 30 percent of constituencies were ready to have a completely mechanized and electronic voting system, but due to disagreement by the Guardian Council, all voting was done traditionally.
4. 110 percent increase in registration of candidates
5. 5944 candidates approved by the Guardian Council
6. 33,956, 651 eligible voters (62%) participated in the first round of elections, with 48% women and 52% men
7. 221 candidates won seats in the first round of elections, 68 to be decided in the runoff
8. 33.48% voters’ turnout for runoff elections
9. Of 288 lawmakers, 271 are men and 17 are women
10. About Isfahan’s third candidate (Minoo Khaleghi) whose election was nullified by the Guardian Council, the Interior Ministry has referred the issue to relevant authorities and is still awaiting a legal resolution of the matter.
11. 111 of candidates are from previous terms and 177 candidates will be serving the parliament for the first time
Attestation ceremony was then held during which the representatives attested to guard Islamic Republic’s principles and interests of Iranian nation.
President Hassan Rouhani, the last lecturer of the opening ceremony, also addressed the new representatives of Iranian Parliament.
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