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20 February 2020 Around 58 million voters are called to the polls on Friday for the 11th parliamentary elections of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The eve of the election was characterized by one of the most massive disqualifications of candidates , so much so that some reformists - the hardest hit by the scrutiny of the Guardian Council - invited to boycott the vote for lack of real competition in numerous colleges under the slogan Ray-bi-Ray ('No vote').

According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, 16,000 registered to participate in the consultation, but only 7,148 were admitted. Also excluded about eighty deputies of the current legislature, including a figure with an impeccable revolutionary curriculum such as Ali Motahhari, 62, the son of a Shiite religious whose teachings contributed to the ideology of the Islamic Republic, but who has shown to sympathize for the centrist president Hassan Rohani.

The candidates, who run in 200 colleges spread across the 31 provinces of the country, will compete for the 290 seats of the Majlis, the Legislative Assembly of the Islamic Republic , which has a four-year term. Among them there are also a few dozen names representing religious minorities, which have five seats (Jews, Zoroastrians, a shared seat for Assyrians and Chaldeans, two for Armenians).

Officially, all Iranians aged 30 to 75, who have a higher education, have performed compulsory military service (for men) and have shown their dedication to Islam (except for those who apply) for seats assigned to religious minorities).

The polling stations open at 8 local time (5.30 in Italy) and close at 18 local, but end of the voting operations is sometimes extended during the day, to encourage voting and increase the turnout data. According to the spokesman of the Guardian Council, the turnout will be higher than 50%.

Iranian electoral law requires that ballots be taken in constituencies where none of the candidates exceeded the 25% threshold in the first round. The day set for the possible ballot is April 17th.

Iran is divided into uninominal and plurinominal colleges : the largest and most crucial is that of the capital Tehran, which elects 30 deputies. After Tehran, the provinces that send the most deputies to Majlis are Isfahan and East Azerbaijan (19 each). Those who elect least MPs are Alborz, Qom, Ilam, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad (3 each). The election campaign, which officially closes today, lasted only seven days and took place rather quietly.

The economic crisis due to American sanctions, but also to what conservatives brand as mismanagement of the country by the Rohani administration is the problem at the top of the agenda of all political groups - there are no real parties in Iran - and above all the main concern of every family.

Precisely because of its direct repercussions on the daily lives of the Iranians, foreign policy is the other great theme on which the candidates beat: from the relationship with the USA, to the regional influence of Iran, to be pursued with financial and military in the Arab world.

Furthermore, on Friday, five provinces - Khorasan, Khorasan Razavi, Fars, Tehran and Qom - vote for the medium-term elections of the Assembly of Experts: formed by 88 members and with an 8-year mandate, it has the power to elect the Supreme Guide. The provinces interested in this vote are five.