COVID-19: Iran postpones 2nd round of parliamentary elections
Tehran, Mar 16 : Iran has postponed the second round of the country’s parliamentary elections in order to fight against the rapidly escalating global coronavirus pandemic.
The polls, originally slated for April 17, will be held on Sept 11, Abbasali Kadkhodaei, a spokesman for the Guardian Council of Constitution announced on Sunday, reported IRNA news agency.
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 on 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.
After emerging in Wuhan, China last December, the virus known as COVID-19 has spread to at least 141 countries and territories.
The global death toll from the virus has surpassed 5,700 with more than 152,000 cases confirmed worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
(UNI)