Iran to increase 40 parliamentary seats after decades of delay

The Iranian government has just three months to finally implement Article 64 of the constitution which mandates an increase in the number of parliamentary seats, forcing better representation for Iranians in underrepresented regions.

The directive requires the government to facilitate the addition of 40 new representatives from densely populated regions to the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis or Majles).

The plan, approved by the parliament last month and ratified by the Guardian Council, aims to address significant demographic shifts that have occurred since the last adjustment to the parliament composition in 1999.

The changes have resulted in an unequal distribution of representation, with some sparsely populated districts having the same number of representatives as significantly larger ones.

Article 64 of the constitution stipulates that 20 representatives should be added to the parliament every 10 years. However, no adjustments have been made since 1999, despite four previous attempts to increase the number of seats, which were blocked by government opposition.

Unnamed experts cited by Fars news agency argue the current seat distribution is severely imbalanced, pointing to districts with 30,000 residents having equal representation to those with millions. For example, Alborz province, with 4.2 million residents, has only three representatives.

Supporters of the plan believe its implementation will strengthen the parliament and rectify social injustices caused by the current disparities in representation.