Iran's former president Mohammad Khatami, who, according to the local media, cast his vote in suburban Tehran on Friday, said in December that reformists would not announce candidates for the parliamentary elections because "conditions for reformists to participate in the election were not met."

Khatami said earlier that reformists could participate in the elections only if all the reformist political prisoners were freed, the political atmosphere was opened up and the elections could be held with utmost transparency.

Iran's Guardian Council said earlier that individuals who were linked to the protests after the 2009 presidential election would not be eligible to run for the campaigns.

Protests gripped Tehran and other Iranian cities after the 2009 presidential election amid claims that the vote had been rigged in favor of the incumbent president Ahmadinejad. More than 1,000 protesters and dozens of reformist activists were reportedly arrested, most of whom the authorities said were later released.

Two reformist candidates for the presidential election, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, are currently under house arrest.

Iran held its previous parliamentary elections in March 2008, when the authorities approved about 4,500 candidates to compete for the 290-seat legislature and barred over 1,700 others, who were regarded as not "loyal" enough to Islamic values and the Islamic revolution.

Iran's conservatives who generally supported the country's Islamic establishments and President Ahmadinejad won an absolute majority of seats in the 2008 elections, while reformists who wanted better relations with the West won far fewer seats.