TEHRAN – The Guardian Council released on Sunday the list of candidates who are considered competent to run for parliamentary elections.

Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, said in a tweet late on Saturday that the process of studying qualification of the candidates has ended.

The council announced on Sunday that the candidates who oppose the result of the study can file a complaint from January 12 to January 16.

MPs Ali Motahari, Mahmoud Sadeghi, Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, Nader Ghazipour, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, and Elias Hazrati are among those candidates who have been found ineligible to run for the elections.

Shahindokht Molaverdi, the former vice president for women’s and family affairs in the Rouhani administration, has also been banned to run for the parliament.

The Guardian Council has rejected the competence of 120 sitting MPs who had registered to run in the February election. However, MP Ghasem Mirzaei Nikoo told ISNA on Monday that the competence of 30 of the 120 MPs were confirmed on Sunday night.

The elections for the 290-seat parliament will be held on February 21.

NA/PA