Islam Times - Ayatollah Khamenei Casts Vote in Early Minutes of Voting in Iran

Islam Times - As the nationwide elections for the Parliament and the Assembly of Experts kicked off in Iran on Friday morning, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei cast his ballot in the early hours of the voting.

Ayatollah Khamenei cast his ballot at the Imam Khomeini Husseiniya of Tehran as soon as the voting began at 8 am local time, with enthusiastic journalists and photographers present at the site of the voting.

In comments after voting, the Leader called on the eligible voters to go to the polling stations in the early hours of elections.

He then advised the people to vote to the maximum possible number of candidates in every polling area, for example to 16 Assembly of Experts candidates and 30 parliamentary candidates in Tehran, not less than those numbers.

Ayatollah Khamenei also said many people in the world, including the friends and ill-wishers, are today focusing attention on Iran’s elections and the result of the votes.

“Make the friends happy and disappoint the ill-wishers,” the Leader told people in the live televised speech.

Asked about an advice about the undecided voters, the Leader said people should not hesitate about doing good things.

Having gone through a formal qualification process by Iran’s Constitutional Council, over 12,000 candidates, including dozens of Iranians from the religious minorities, are running for the parliament.

Around 61 million Iranian people are eligible to vote, including 3.5 million first-time voters.

The elections are held in around 60,000 polling stations across Iran.

A total of 144 clergymen have also been chosen as the final candidates for the Assembly of Experts elections.

There are 290 seats in the Iranian Parliament, known as Majlis, elected by direct vote of people in nationwide elections for four years.

The Assembly of Experts is a high-ranking body that elects and oversees the activities of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.