By KUNA
Tehran : Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad cast his ballot in the 8th legislative election here Friday.
Speaking to reporters after balloting, Ahmadinejad, who had just returned home from Senegal where he attended the 11th Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit, said the Iranian people’s participation in the polls was the secret of the survival of the Islamic Revolution.
The 18th Majlis election reflects the people’s will to run their country’s affairs, the Iranian president said.
Iranian Majlis Speaker Ghulam Ali Haddad also cast his ballot, considering the Iranian people as the real winner of the polls and their enemies as the major loser.
Chairman of the Assembly of Experts and Expediency Council Hashimi Rafsanjani voted in the polls at a polling station in northern Iran.
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also cast his ballot early this morning for the 8th Majlis election, urging people to go to the polls en masse.
Speaking to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Irshad Constituency Chief Irshad Daoud said there was a good turnout at the polls, expecting more voters to flow in groups to the polling stations in the remaining hours.
The Iranian people are always keen to vote in the returning as a national duty away from political and party conflicts, he said.
Turnout is predicted to hit 55-60 percent in this year’s elections compared to 51 percent in the February 2004 polls.
Over 45,000 polling stations have been set up in 207 constituencies for people to elect representatives to the 290-seat parliament.
Tens of domestic and foreign reporters, photographers, cameramen and correspondents are giving coverage to the event.
The eighth parliamentary election, great test for national solidarity and strength for the governing system, started at eight o’clock on Friday morning.