TEHRAN — Iran on Friday held runoff parliamentary election, where 139 candidates vied for 69 seats in the 290-strong parliament.

Elections were held in 55 constituencies in 21 provinces.

The election will shape the power structure between a coalition of reformists and moderates versus principlists.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. and continued until 7 p.m. However, the voting time was extended 2 hours in all constituencies except two in Fars province.

Nearly 17 million people were eligible to vote. Until our closing hour there was no report about the election turnout.

The turnout in the first round of election, held on Feb. 26, stood at 62 percent.

Under the law, two candidates compete for every seat in the runoff and the one who wins a simple majority of votes wins the seat.

According to the latest communiqué of the Interior Ministry, election results will be announced on Saturday or early Sunday.

The next Majlis will start work on May 28.

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazil, visiting the election headquarters in Tehran, said some complaints of election violations had been received during the election campaigns by rival candidates which have been studied.

Campaigns started on April 21 and lasted until 8 a.m. on April 28.

Rahmani Fazil also said so far no evidence has been found that executive bodies or other organizations have been involved in the elections in favor of a particular candidate or candidates.

PA/AK

PA/PA