Parliament hopefuls start registering

Registration of candidates for the parliamentary elections started throughout the country on Saturday and will continue for a week.

The eighth Majlis election is scheduled to be held on March 14, 2008.

The candidates should register through a website established by the Interior Ministry, and then take a print of their information to their local governor office to verify the identification documents.

The applicants should have seven general qualifications: believe in Islam (members of minority religions are exempted), and be loyal to the Islamic Republic; be a national of Iran; be loyal to the Constitution and believe in the rule of jurisprudent; have a master or equivalent degree; have no bad reputation in the electoral district; be healthy (be able to see, hear, and speak); have a minimum age of 30 and maximum of 75.

A bachelor degree is sufficient if a candidate would have five years of experience in executive tasks at expert level in the private or public sector. Five years of experience in educational or research activities, or having the record of serving as an MP can be taken as a master degree.

The name of qualified candidates will be released on March 5.

Guardian Council Spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaii told reporters on Saturday that the number of eligible voters in the country is less than 43 million.

The minimum age for voters in the parliamentary elections is 18.