Iranian principlists secure most parliamentary seats in second round

TEHRAN,May 6(MNA) -- Official results of Iran’s run-off parliamentary election, which was held on May 4, were announced on Saturday. As in the first round, the main competition was between the candidates representing the United Front of Principlists and the Islamic Revolution Resistance Front. And the candidates fielded by the United Front of Principlists won most of the seats as they did in the first round. The candidates who have been elected to the 290-member parliament will serve a four-year term. The winners of 225 seats were determined in the first round of the parliamentary election, which was held on March 2, and 130 candidates contested for the remaining 65 seats in the run-off held in 33 constituencies in 18 provinces, including the capital Tehran. According to the law, each candidate must win a fourth of the votes in his or her constituency to be elected as a lawmaker in the first round. In the campaign for the 30 seats in Tehran, five candidates were elected to the parliament in the March 2 election. The five candidates were Gholam Ali Hadad-Adel, Ali Reza Marandi, Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabifard, Morteza Agha Tehrani, and Massoud Mirkazemi. Haddad-Adel and Aboutorabifard represented the United Front of Principlists in the election. Agha Tehrani was fielded by the Islamic Revolution Resistance Front. And Marandi and Mirkazemi were put on the candidate lists of both fronts. Following is the list of the candidates who won seats in the parliament from the Tehran constituency in the second round: One hundred and sixty-nine candidates were elected to the parliament for the first time. And 40 current MPs failed to win seats among whom are Assadollah Badamchian, Zohreh Elahian, Parviz Sorouri, Hossein Fadaii, Hassan Ghafourifard, Ali Abbaspour, Hamidreza Katouzian, Vali Esmaeili, Hossein Ebrahimi, Heshmatollah Falahatpishe, and Ali Adyani-Rad. 9 female candidates were elected to the Majlis.