TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hailed the massive turnout in last week’s elections in the country, underlining that the Iranian people will never allow anything to prevent them from shaping their future.

The huge turnout in Friday’s elections demonstrated the Iranians’ resolve to decide their fate irrespective of any problem, Zarif said at a ceremony held in Tehran on Wednesday to acknowledge the efforts by Iranian reporters and journalists in the long course of nuclear talks between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

Countrywide parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections were held in Iran on February 26.

More than 60 percent of some 55 million eligible voters cast their ballots at around 53,000 polling stations across the country.

4,844 and 161 candidates ran for the parliament and the Assembly of Experts, respectively.

There are 290 seats in the Iranian parliament, elected by direct vote of people in nationwide election for four years.

In a message on Sunday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei had also expressed gratitude for the aware, resolved and determined nation of Iran, saying the public turnout at the polls displayed “the brilliant face of religious democracy to the world.”

By Tasnim News Agency