Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that according to official statistics, there are 3.5 million Iranians living abroad who are eligible to vote in this election. Iran usually encourages its diaspora to participate in its elections, although the diaspora vote does not usually influence the result as much as in other countries. Iran has clashed with other countries for not allowing polling stations on their territory, with the most recent being Canada on Friday, which argued that it is under no obligation to do so, especially since Iran and Canada do not have formal diplomatic relations.