"Election law needed to be reformed. The changes to the composition of the provincial executive board will definitely help the Interior Ministry during the whole process of elections," Iranian lawmaker Laleh Eftekhari has told Press TV.
Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the planned changes, saying the amendments would pave the way for the parliament's interference in the electoral process.
Iranian MP Moayyed Hosseini Sadr said, "By the new amendments to election law, we do not mean to task the parliament with holding the elections. In fact, it is the executive board, comprising the interior minister, the board of trustees, and civil servants, which supervises the electoral process. Therefore, it is not true that the MPs want to interfere in the electoral process. And these changes are not unconstitutional…It is like saying that the Army interferes in the parliament's affairs by undertaking its security."
The changes will apply to the next presidential elections should they be approved by the parliament.
The president of Iran is elected for a four-year-long term in a national election. Candidates for the presidency must be approved by the Guardian Council.
Iranians will choose their seventh president to succeed Ahmadinejad in the next year’s election, which is scheduled for June 14, 2013.
press tv/281
