IFP - Iranian lawmakers on Wednesday elected Ali Larijani as the speaker of the parliament for 11th consecutive year.






In an open session of the parliament this morning, the MPs held an election to appoint the parliament�s presiding board.

During the polls, Larijani secured 147 votes out of 270 valid votes.

His initial rivals were the reformist lawmaker Mohammad-Reza Aref and the conservative MP Hamid-Reza Haji Babaei. In the first round of the election, Aref secured 114 votes, Larijani 101 votes, and Haji Babaei 54 votes, but none of them won the majority of the votes, leading the election to a run-off.

For the second round, Haji Babaei withdrew his candidacy in favour of Larijani, and that helped the latter secure the majority of votes in the run-off. 123 lawmakers voted for Aref in the second round.

The Iranian Parliament has currently 290 representatives, changed from the previous 272 seats since the 18 February 2000 election. The most recent parliamentary polls were held on February 26, 2016.

The lawmakers take the seats for a four-year term.

The Zoroastrians and Jews each elect one representative in the parliament, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians jointly elect one representative, and Armenian Christians in the north and the south are each represented by one lawmaker, according to the Parliament�s official website.