Elections in Iran

Iran

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

Constitution Constitution (1979) Constitution (1906) Leadership Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Assembly of Experts Speaker Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani Executive President (List) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Vice President First (List): Mohammad-Reza Rahimi Others Cabinet 90th Government Supreme National Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution Legislative Islamic Consultative Assembly Speaker Ali Larijani Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Supreme Audit Court City and Village Councils Judicial Supreme Court Sadeq Larijani Attorney General Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejehei General Inspection Office Ministry of Justice Human rights Elections Elections in Iran Guardian Council Political parties Political parties in Iran Reformists Conservatives Foreign policy Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Politics of Iran Iran in Africa

Other countries · Atlas Politics portal

Iran elects on national level a head of state and head of government (the president), a legislature (the Majlis), and an "Assembly of Experts" (which elects the Supreme Leader). Also City and Village Council elections are held every four 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 six years. Mayors will be elected by popular vote for once in 2010. 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.

Latest elections

2009 presidential election

Main article: Iranian presidential election, 2009

sample of ballot which was used in the Iranian presidential election

The 2009 Iranian presidential election was held on 12 June 2009 in Iran, the tenth presidential election to be held in the country. The President of Iran is the highest official elected by direct, popular 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).

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, while Mir-Hossein Mousavi received 33% of the votes cast. 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. The European Union said it was "concerned about alleged irregularities" during the vote, and some analysts and journalists from United States and United Kingdom based media expressed doubts about the authenticity of the results.

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.

Iranian presidential election, 2009
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage
	Alliance of Builders	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (inc.)	24,527,516	62.63%
	Green Movement	Mir-Hossein Mousavi	13,216,411	33.75%
	Moderation and Development	Mohsen Rezaee	678,240	1.73%
	National Trust	Mehdi Karroubi	333,635	0.85%
Valid votes			38,755,802	98.95%
Blank or invalid votes			409,389	1.05%
Totals			39,165,191	100.00%
Voter turnout			85%
Sources: Ministry of Interior of Iran

2008 parliamentary election

Women voting for first time in 1963

Main article: Iranian legislative election, 2008

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]}

 Summary of 14 March/25 April 2008 Parliament of Iran election results

Coalition	Seats (1st rd.)	Seats (2nd rd.)	Seats (Total)	%
Conservatives	143	52	195	67.2%
Reformists	31	20	51	17.9%
Independents	29	10	39	13.4%
Armenians recognized minority religion	2		2	0.6%
Assyrian and Chaldean (Catholic) recognized minority religion	1		1	0.3%
Jewish recognized minority religion	1		1	0.3%
Zoroastrian recognized minority religion	1		1	0.3%
Total (Turnout: 60%)	208	82	290	100%
Source: IPU

2006 Assembly of Experts election

Main article: Iranian Assembly of Experts election, 2006

See also

• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system
• Censorship in Iran

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
• Iran Electoral Archive