The 12th Parliamentary elections since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 were held in the Islamic Republic of Iran on Friday 1 March 2024 and the counting so far indicates that the majority of seats will be dominated by conservatives as opposed to reformist candidates.
The turnout for the election 2024 is estimated to be around 41% amongst 61 million eligible voters to elect 290-member Parliament as well as the 88-member Assembly of Experts composed of Islamic scholars.
The Islamic Revolution on 11 February 1979 founded the Islamic Republic of Iran with an Islamic democratic system of governance based on a constitution in observance of the Islamic core values and participatory democratic principles replacing a US allied monarchic dictatorship.
The 6th Article of Iran’s Constitution asserts that governing bodies in the country including leader, president, parliament members and mayors have to be elected by people’s popular votes. During the last 44 years, Iranians have gone to the polls 41 times including 3 times for Referenda, 13 times for presidential elections, 11 times for Islamic Assembly (Majlis), 5 times for local City Councils.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is indeed an inspiration for the Muslim world with a long track record of good governance, representative leadership, people power and periodic elections on time in spite of global opposition in particular war mongering by Israel and the US.
Election 2024 has been a tough competition between various political parties with diversity of policies and opinions. The competency of more than 15,000 candidates was confirmed which is tantamount of 51 candidates for each parliamentary seat (in comparison to 9 candidates in Germany, 6 in England, 5 in Japan and 4 in Canada).
Out of 61,172,298 eligible voters in the country, 3,500,000 are first-time voters, 87% of the candidates are men and 13% (1,700) are women of various professions including 1,100 university professors, 250 medical doctors, 1,700 teachers and around 400 lawyers and judges.
Besides its domestic politics which indicates the institutionalisation of both democratic system and Islamic values while in the realm of foreign policy, Iran has been vocal in support of Muslim world to be independent of the hegemony of world powers.
Just currently with regard to the war in Gaza against Palestinians and the deprivation of this nation from their inherent right of having an independent country because of a 75-year Zionist historical occupation and apartheid, Iran is the sole country that believes in holding a referendum based on one-individual one-vote formula including all Palestinians, Muslims, Christians and Jews in order to establish a democratic government in Palestine for all.
Due to its fierce independent and progressive orientation, Islamic Republic of Iran has been continuously targeted throughout its history of 44 years through imposed wars, terrorist attacks, conspiracies, assassinations and sanctions and regime change in order to install a subservient regime.
However Iran and its people have shown great resilient against a global opposition to keep following the democratic principles maintaining total independence from hegemony in particular from Israel and US.
The Islamic Republic of Iran under very difficult circumstances has made significant progress in science, education, industry, aerospace, medicine, nanotechnology and defence technology.
Under crippling sanctions, it has become self sufficient in manufacturing goods not only for domestic use but also exports its products and services in various field to many countries.
Iran has just launched several satellites this year with homemade carrier designed and built domestically and now ranks among the top countries globally in knowledge-based industries, industrial production, nanotechnology and is indeed a source of pride and dignity for Muslims all over the world.
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