Elections for the ninth parliament of the private sector are being held at all 34 local chambers of commerce across Iran.
Businessmen and women that are members of the local chambers of commerce and who received their business cards more than 18 months ago will elect through electronic vote 535 individuals out of 1547 candidates.
The event is being held at the headquarters of local chambers of commerce across the country except for Tehran Chamber of Commerce, whose elections are taking place at Laleh Hotel in the Iranian capital.
The voting started at 8 am local time (+3.5 GMT) and will last till 6 pm. It could be extended for three hours.
All candidates will be elected electronically in an event that is being monitored online by the Supervisory Board of the Elections at Iran Chamber of Commerce heaquarters in Tehran in a bid to prevent any voter fraude.
There are 657 candidates from the commercial sector, that is 42.4% of all candidates, 461 people from the industrial sector, 268 business people from agriculture as well as 161 individuals from the mining sector. Each winner will be a member of local chambers of commerce for a period of four years.
The elections for the ninth parliament at Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA) are the most important of all as there are more candidates for this chamber, that is 159 people vying for 40 seats up for grabs. There are 60 seats at the chamber, 20 of which are not elected as they are proposed by the government.
The capital’s chamber of commerce is followed by Bandar Abbas, Isfahan and Mashhad chambers of commerce where the election race is tighter as candidates are competing for only 15 seats in each local business parliament.
The election at Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), which is called the private sector parliament in Iran, is set to be held in three months.