Iran postpones 2nd round of parliamentary elections over COVID-19

APD NEWS

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The second round of Iran's parliament elections will be held on Sept. 11, Abbasali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for the Guardian Council of Constitution announced on Sunday.

The council agreed with the request of the Iranian Ministry of Internal Affairs to postpone the second round of elections over the spread of novel coronavirus, Kadkhodaei was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.

"The second round of parliamentary elections was to be held on April 17, but it was canceled," he said.

The 11th parliamentary elections were held on Feb. 21 in Iran.

According to Iranian Ministry of Internal Affairs, a total of 24.512 million people, about 42.57 percent, participated in the elections.

The number of participants in the first round of vote displayed a significant drop of voters compared to the previous election. The 2016 parliamentary election in Iran saw 62 percent turnout.

In the capital Tehran, only 26.2 percent of eligible people attended the ballot boxes.

Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education announced Sunday that novel coronavirus has affected 13,938 people of whom 724 people have died.

Iran declared the first cases of infection with the COVID-19 in the central city of Qom on Feb. 19.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)