TEHRAN – Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said that fundamentalists will reach a consensus on their candidate for parliament speaker.

“…There will be no conflict among the fundamentalists over power,” Haddad-Adel told reporters in his first press conference in the new Iranian calendar year, which began on March 20.
Haddad-Adel, who was reelected in the first round of voting, added, “Nobody can decide on his position in the Majlis” in advance.
The next parliament is “in general fundamentalist,” he noted.
He defended the conservative faction’s cooperation with the administration which has aroused criticism by some officials who say parliament is not supervising governmental affairs fully.
“Cooperation with the administration is a principle of fundamentalism,” he explained.
No electoral violations reported
An Interior Ministry official tasked with handling elections in the Tehran constituency, Safarali Baratlu, said here on Wednesday that no violations have been reported for the first round of the parliamentary election.
“The various stages of the first round of election were held in a safe and sound manner in Tehran,” he said.
Baratlu also expressed hope that the runoff parliamentary election results would be announced sooner than the first round’s.
Conservatives to compete in 13 constituencies
United Fundamentalist Front Executive Secretary Shahabeddin Sadr said conservative hopefuls will compete with each other in 13 constituencies and reformists will compete against each other in 3 constituencies.
Candidates of different political persuasions will be contesting for the remaining seats.
Hopefuls will contest for 52 seats in the runoff elections set to be held on April 25.
“Out of 209, 147 elected candidates are fundamentalist, 32 reformist, 24 independents,” and the number of religious minorities elected to parliament are 5, Alireza Zakani of the UFF stated.
With two weeks to go until the runoff elections, Sadr pointed to the number of elected conservatives and said, “It was a 70-percent victory for us in the first round of elections.”
Ali-Asghar Zareii, another UFF member, announced that the faction will release its list for the April 25 elections by next week.
Zareii and Sadr defended cabinet reshuffle in government of Mahmud Ahmadinejad. “Cabinet changes” comes in line with the objectives of the “Year of Innovation and Flourishing,” Zareii argued