The second round of the parliamentary elections started today in Iran. The citizens of the Islamic Republic started voting to elect 68 out of 290 members of the Parliament, which failed to get 25% of votes cast in the first round of the elections.
Polling stations opened at 08.00 local time and will work until 18.00. It is not excluded that the Iranian authorities will allow to extend the time of voting.
136 candidates are competing to secure seats for 55 constituencies. The head of the Central Election Commission of Iran, Mohammad Hossein Moghimi, previously said that 19 million new ballots are being printed for exclusive use in the runoffs.
According to him, 15,350 polling stations have been planned in 21 provinces.
Earlier this week, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on citizens to vote. "The second round of parliamentary elections is not less important than the first. All eligible voters must participate," he stressed.
The President of Iran Hassan Rouhani said in February that "election is a symbol of the political independence of a country" and that "by voting, people decide the future of their country".
In the first round of the elections the conservatives won 105 seats in the parliament (46%), the reformers (37.5%) and the moderates 95 seats.
The Interior Ministry announced the names of 222 parliamentary candidates who won the first round elections held on February 26.
A senior research fellow of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Sazhin, speaking with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, said the results of the second round may be different from the results of the first round, because the bulk of the current candidates isn't concentrated in major cities. The expert pointed out that the differences will be small and the second round will be held "as the main election day".
Speaking about who will be able to gain an advantage this time, Sazhin noted that it is difficult to predict, whether voters will prefer the reformers or conservatives.
"I will say it again, this is mostly the provincial election, re-election. It is quite possible that they may end in a draw," he suggested.
"But in general, of course, the Parliament will be different from the previous convocation of the Parliament, it is for sure," a senior research fellow of the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences said.
"After a confident victory of the reformers in the first round, the fundamentalists, as I call them, of course, have carried out a huge political, ideological, propaganda work during these two months," he pointed out.
The expert pointed out that the increased activity of the fundamentalists "can affect the outcome of the struggle."
"It can affect, because, relatively speaking, the anti-reformist campaign was very active during these two months," Vladimir Sazhin concluded.
A senior scientist at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Stanislav Pritchin, talking about the second round of elections, pointed to several factors that will affect the results.
"On the one hand, quite a serious success of the liberals, supporters of Rouhani and Rafsanjani, in the first round shows that public opinion is leaning toward the current president's course, than to the insulating course represented by the conservatives. And, first of all, it became evident after elections to the advisory council, "he said.
"On the other hand, we see that while one cannot bring significant changes in the living standards of ordinary Iranians," the expert explained.
He believes that "the period between two rounds will likely play against the supporters of more liberal wing". "I think that both of these factors are not strong enough to affect the result, it is likely to be similar to what we had in the first round of elections," Pritchin said.
He does not expect any substantial changes of the situation. "Most likely the liberals will have a slight advantage," a senior scientist at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences summed up.
