A record number of people have registered to become candidates in Iran’s parliamentary elections which are scheduled for March, the Interior Ministry said Monday, according to The Associated Press.
The elections will be the first since nationwide protests rocked the country last year.
Nearly 49,000 people filed paperwork seeking to run as candidates during a one-week registration period that ended on Sunday, the ministry said.
That number is more than three times the 16,000 registrations filed in the last election in 2020, when voter turnout was its lowest since 1979, with just over 42% of eligible voters casting ballots.
There were no details on the registration of prominent political figures or pro-reform groups. The increase in filings was seen as a result of an easy online registration process.
Some 14% of submissions were from women, an increase from 12% in 2020. About 250 current members of the 290-seat parliament also registered, according to AP.
The vetting process of candidates is expected to begin in the coming weeks and conclude in late October.
The Guardian Council, which oversees Iran's elections and is mostly appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is charged with vetting candidates.
In 2017, it disqualified former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running for president.
In 2016, the Guardian Council rejected Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, from running in the elections for the country's Assembly of Experts on the grounds that he does not have sufficient religious competence.