Assembly of Experts

Assembly of Experts
Coat of arms or logo
Leadership
First Deputy Chairman
Hashem Hosseini Bushehri
since 21 May 2024
Second Deputy Chairman
Alireza Arafi
since 21 May 2024
Structure
Seats88
Political groups
  •   Principlists (58)
  •   Reformists (2)
  •   Non-affiliated (28)
Length of term
8 years[1]
Elections
Multi-seat districts: Plurality-at-large voting
Single-seat districts: First-past-the-post voting[1]
Last election
1 March 2024
Meeting place
Assembly of Experts building, Tehran, Iran
Website
www.majlesekhobregan.ir

The Assembly of Experts (Persian: مجلس خبرگان رهبری, romanizedmajles-e xobregân-e rahbari), also translated as the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership or as the Council of Experts, is the deliberative body empowered to appoint the Supreme Leader of Iran.[2][3] All directly elected members must first be vetted by the Guardian Council.

All candidates to the Assembly of Experts must be approved by the Guardian Council whose members are, in turn, appointed either directly or indirectly by the Supreme Leader.[4] The Assembly consists of 88 Mujtahids that are elected[5][6] from lists of thoroughly vetted candidates (in 2016 166 candidates were approved by the Guardians out of 801 who applied to run for the office),[7] by direct public vote for eight-year terms.[8] The number of members has ranged from 82 elected in 1982 to 88 elected in 2016. Current laws require the assembly to meet at least twice every six months.[9][10]

  1. ^ a b Nohlen, Dieter; Grotz, Florian; Hartmann, Christof (2001). "Iran". Elections in Asia: A Data Handbook. Vol. I. Oxford University Press. p. 64. ISBN 0-19-924958-X.
  2. ^ Article 107 of the Constitution of Iran
  3. ^ Article 111 of the Constitution of Iran
  4. ^ "Rafsanjani breaks taboo over selection of Iran's next supreme leader". The Guardian. 14 December 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  5. ^ (see Article 108 of the constitution)
  6. ^ LL.M., Prof. Dr. Axel Tschentscher. "ICL - Iran - Constitution". www.servat.unibe.ch. Archived from the original on 21 August 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  7. ^ "Elections in Iran: The great candidate cull: Choose any candidate you like—after the mullahs have excluded reformers". The Economist. 20 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  8. ^ "Understanding Iran's Assembly of Experts" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 June 2007. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  9. ^ [1] Archived 9 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ^ Robin Wright, The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran, Alfred A. Knopf, 2000