Elections in Iran

Iran

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Iran

Government Superme Leader Ali Khamenei President (List) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Guardian Council Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi Cabinet Cabinet of Iran Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili Parliament Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani Assembly of Experts Speaker Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani City and Village Councils Judiciary Judiciary Sadeq Larijani Justice System Human rights Elections Elections in Iran Presidential Elections Parliament Elections Referendums Political Parties Political parties in Iran Reformists Conservatives Foreign Policy Foreign relations Politics of Iran

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Iran elects on national level a head of government (the president), a legislature (the Majlis), and an "Assembly of Experts" (which elects the head of state, the Supreme Leader). Also City and Village Council elections are held every 4 years throughout the country. The president is elected for a four year term by the people. The Parliament or Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis-e Shura-ye Eslami) has 290 members, elected for a four year term in multi- and single-seat constituencies. Elections for the Assembly of Experts are held every 8 years. All candidates have to be approved by the Guardian Council. See Politics of Iran for more details.

Until January 2007, when it was raised to 18, the voting age was 15 years, the lowest globally at the time.^[1]

Latest elections

2009 presidential election

Adherents of Mousavi

The 2009 Iranian presidential election was held on 12 June 2009 in Iran,^[2] the tenth presidential election to be held in the country.^[3] The President of Iran is the highest official elected by direct popularly vote, but does not control foreign policy or the armed forces. Candidates have to be vetted by the Guardian Council, a twelve member body consisting of six clerics (selected by Iran's Supreme Leader), and six lawyers (proposed by the head of Iran's judicial system and voted in by the Parliament).^[4]

With two-thirds of the votes counted, the Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's official news agency, announced that the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the election with 66% of the votes cast,^[5] while Mir-Hossein Mousavi received 33% of the votes cast.^[6][7] The opposition candidates disputed the results amid widespread speculations of vote rigging and sought a re-election with due process; this was followed by popular street protests and its subsequent crackdown by the government.^[8][9][10] The European Union said it was "concerned about alleged irregularities" during the vote^[11], and some analysts and journalists from United States and United Kingdom based media expressed doubts about the authenticity of the results.^{[12][13][14][15]}

An alleged official letter by the Ministry of Interior, addressed to the Supreme Spiritual Leader Ali Khamenei, presented completely different results. According to this letter, reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi would have won the first round with about 19 million votes, followed by the other reformist candidate Mehdi Karrubi with about 13 million votes. Incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would have obtained only 5.6 million votes.^[16][17]

2008 parliamentary election

Victory of the Principalists (58.6%). Defeat of the Reformists (15.8%), of whom 90% were barred from running on the grounds that they were not sufficiently loyal to the regime.^{[citation needed]}

Participation (first round of the elections): 47% of those eligible to vote (27% in Tehran).^{[citation needed]}

Participation (second round of the elections): 8% in Tehran.^{[citation needed]}

2006 Assembly of Experts election

2005 presidential election

Iranians campaigning in Tehran

2004 parliamentary election

Past elections

v • d • e Elections and referendums in Iran Presidential elections 1980 · 1981 (Jul) · 1981 (Oct) · 1985 · 1989 · 1993 · 1997 · 2001 · 2005 · 2009 Parliamentary elections 1909 · 1923 · 1962 · 1967 · 1971 · 1975 · 1980 · 1984 · 1988 · 1992 · 1996 · 2000 · 2004 · 2008 Assembly of Experts elections 1983 · 1991 · 1999 · 2006 Local elections 1999 · 2003 · 2006 Referendums 1963 · 1979 (Mar) · 1979 (Nov) · 1989

See also

• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system
• Censorship in Iran

References

External links

• 2009 Iranian elections page on BBC Persian
• BBC Persian on Iran presidential elections
• Video Archive of Iranian Elections
• Adam Carr's Election Archive
• The Network of iranian law in persian, english & french
• Constitutional law in french
• Iranian law in english
• Iranian law in french