TEHRAN – Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi has urged election officials to act in accordance with the country’s law and deal with election infractions in the legal time.

“Dealing with infractions should be timely and proportional, and taking actions on these infractions after the elections is useless,” Raisi said on Monday, according to ISNA.

“Every infraction should be dealt with immediately,” he recounted.

Raisi also urged Judiciary officials to cooperate with executives and supervisors of the elections.

Parliamentary elections will be held on February 21, 2020.

The candidates had until December 7, 2019 to register. Then the Guardian Council began vetting registered candidates and is scheduled to release the names of candidates deemed eligible to run by December 18.

Disqualified candidates will have four days to object to the Guardian Council, after which the council will study complains and announce the final list on February 11. 

The candidates will have 8 days to spend on the campaign trail, ending on February 19.

The Iranian parliament has 290 members who are elected by the people for four-year terms.

Guardian Council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodaei said last week that the council is the only body responsible to supervise the elections.

“Sometimes questions arise over whether we are the only supervisor of the elections or not,” Kadkhodaei said, adding, “I emphasize that the Guardian Council is the only supervisor of the elections.”

He said the Judiciary is tasked with investigating offenses and the Interior Ministry has an executive responsibility.

“This separation of supervision and execution is very important,” the spokesman remarked. “We should be able to implement our legal responsibilities properly.”

MH/PA