After a year of protests by the nursing community in Iran and the issuance of open letters and petitions, the ministry of health is now declaring a large number of nurses ineligible to participate in the College of Nursing elections.

ILNA reports that the elections will take place on June 20 in all provinces, each of which has a Board of Nursing, but the body overseeing the elections is disqualifying nursing community activists and leaders.

Mohammad Sharifi Moghaddam, the head of the House of Nurses, says that six days after he received a letter that he had been disqualified, he has yet to be given a reason.

Sharifi Moghaddam added that the results should have been announced through official media 10 days ago; however, the disqualified candidates have been getting letters and phone calls only after a 10-day delay, leaving them just one day to appeal the decision.

Sharifi Moghaddam went on to say that he believes the minister of health is directly responsible for these disqualifications.

Sharifi Moghaddam said these events have caused the nursing community the lose its confidence in the transparency of the elections.

Nurses have staged a number of protests in the past year to challenge their inadequate pay and benefits.

In the course of the protests, they have issued two open letters to the president and prepared a number of petitions for Parliament.

Radio Zamaneh