Larijani elected speaker of Iran´s new parliament

Source: Xinhua | 05-28-2008 16:37

TEHRAN, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Iran's new parliament on Wednesday elected the country's former chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijanias its speaker, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Out of a total of 263 votes, Larijani, the single candidate for the post, won 232 ballots, IRNA said.

The report called Larijani as "provisional speaker," because the parliament's "provisional presiding board" would continue its work until credentials of all parliament members are confirmed by the legislative body.

The provisional presiding board groups Larijani, as speaker, and Mohammad-Hassan Abutorabi-Fard and Mohammad-Reza Bahonar as its first and second deputy speaker, IRNA said.

Iran's 8th parliament (Majlis) was inaugurated on Tuesday morning with recitation of Quran and playing of Iran's national anthem.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the inaugural session, saying that parliament and government are brothers and must cooperate in making efforts to meet the Iranian peoples' needs.

The 7th parliament had its last session and concluded its work in the four-year term on Sunday.

After the two rounds of campaign for the legislative seats in March and April, 69 percent of the total 290 seats in the parliament have gone for the conservatives while only 16 percent has been taken by the reformists.

Editor:Liu Fang