Iranians head to the polls to elect a new parliament

Iran’s 10th parliamentary polls opened today

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was one of the first to cast his vote

Iranians vote for Parliament and Council of Experts

Ballots are in 53,000 polling stations for 290 MPs and 88 members of the Council

Nearly 55 million Iranians are eligible to vote

4,844 candidates are competing to get into Parliament

360 candidates also compete for parliament and council of experts from 4 Kurdish provinces

UN: ‘We encourage free and fair elections everywhere in the world. We certainly hope that will be the case in Iran,’

Khamenei: ‘Turnout in the elections should be as such that our enemy will be disappointed and will lose hope.’