Candidates running for seats in Iran's legislature launched Thursday their election campaigns, one week ahead of polls expected to tighten conservatives' grip on power.

Voters are due to cast their ballots on March 1 to pick new members of Iran's parliament, as well as the Assembly of Experts, a key body in charge of appointing the country's supreme leader.

The upcoming election will be the first since months-long nationwide protests rocked Iran following the September 2022 death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd.

She had been arrested earlier for allegedly violating the Islamic republic's strict dress code for women.

Large billboards and election posters have sprung up in Tehran and other cities to announce the start of campaigning, urging people to take part.

But the first official day of campaigning on Thursday did not see a large number of banners erected in favour of individual candidates or their coalitions.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged people to head to the........

© Al Monitor