“Candidates’ Election Costs Should Be Transparent to People”

In an interview with ICANA, Iranian lawmaker Ahmad Amirabadi said election expenses should be completely transparent to the people.

He said there is no law in Iran which obliges candidates to declare their election costs, but the Parliament’s Councils and National Affairs Commission should step in and take care of the issue.

“After the [May] presidential vote and before the next parliamentary election, there will be a good opportunity to fill the legal void in this area,” said Amirabadi, who is also a member of the commission.

“There are questions which need to be answered; how can a candidate spend billions [of rials] on elections? How much is an MP’s salary, after all?” he asked.

Of course, no one can claim that all candidates spend huge sums of money on their election campaigns, but there are some contenders who spend extravagantly to garner more votes.