the great slight hope
iranian voters choose the leaders who will choose their leader
March 2, 2016 – Last week, voters in Iran went to the polls to select members of the Maglis (a 290-member parliament) and the Assembly of Experts (an 88-member body that will eventually select a new Supreme Leader). Turnout was high and there was a notable absence of the unrest and protests that followed the turbulent presidential election of 2009. Optimists say that this is a step forward for Iran. President Hasan Ruhani was able to convince voters to elect representatives from his so-called “List of Hope,” which was a campaign ticket full of moderate and reform-minded candidates. On the other hand, skeptics think that the election went off so smoothly because so little was at stake. The President is only halfway through his term, and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei, is in office for life--the Maglis has little to no direct influence over what decisions the Ayatollah makes, and the Assembly of Experts mainly just decides what to do after he dies.
Whether this election has made the world a safer place may be up for debate, but there is at least one flaw in the skeptics' argument. While the Maglis may not have a check on the Supreme Leader’s power, the Assembly of Experts plays a crucial role in how the country moves forward. The assembly has often been compared to the College of Cardinals in the Catholic Church--their chief task is to appoint a new Supreme Leader when Ayatollah Khamenei dies, and it is likely that the appointment will go to one of their own. For this reason, controlling who is on the assembly is crucially important.
Whether this election has made the world a safer place may be up for debate, but there is at least one flaw in the skeptics' argument. While the Maglis may not have a check on the Supreme Leader’s power, the Assembly of Experts plays a crucial role in how the country moves forward. The assembly has often been compared to the College of Cardinals in the Catholic Church--their chief task is to appoint a new Supreme Leader when Ayatollah Khamenei dies, and it is likely that the appointment will go to one of their own. For this reason, controlling who is on the assembly is crucially important.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei casts a vote, but who elects him?
A Guardian Council puts all candidates through an extensive vetting process before voters get to have their say about the assembly. At least 794 people applied to run for the office this year but only 166 made it through the written tests and background checks needed to be deemed qualified for the post. In addition to these limitations, the whole game is boys only--while Iranian women can vote and run for office in the Maglis, they are forbidden from serving on the Assembly of Experts .
In our recent podcast episode, we brought up Hassan Khomeini as someone to watch closely. While Khomeini is the grandson of the original hardliner Ayatollah Khomeini (aka, the leader of the Iranian Revolution), he has been linked to reformers and has spoken against the government’s support for violent extremism. Reformers were hoping that Khomeini’s famous name would allow him to run for the Assembly of Experts and maybe follow in his grandfather’s footsteps to lead the country one day. But this was not to be--the Guardian Council made short work of Khomeini’s prospects by barring him from running a few days before the election.
In our recent podcast episode, we brought up Hassan Khomeini as someone to watch closely. While Khomeini is the grandson of the original hardliner Ayatollah Khomeini (aka, the leader of the Iranian Revolution), he has been linked to reformers and has spoken against the government’s support for violent extremism. Reformers were hoping that Khomeini’s famous name would allow him to run for the Assembly of Experts and maybe follow in his grandfather’s footsteps to lead the country one day. But this was not to be--the Guardian Council made short work of Khomeini’s prospects by barring him from running a few days before the election.
Despite the barring of Khomeini, the great slight hope of the election is that some reformers did get through the vetting process and were elected onto the assembly. Moderates like former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani were elected, while some of the most hardline and hawkish candidates (like Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati) were defeated.
Iran is a country that is split between the generation that remembers the 1979 revolution and the other half of the country (who were born after it). The tension between the hardline revolutionaries and the young people who want an end to the nation’s economic isolation heightens with every passing year. There are dozens of theories about how Iran’s future plays out, from a war with Israel or the United States to a coup led by disaffected young people. But of all the potentials on that list, every peaceful scenario involves ballot boxes, polling places, and indelible ink on forefingers. Surely this is a List of Hope we can all support.
Iran is a country that is split between the generation that remembers the 1979 revolution and the other half of the country (who were born after it). The tension between the hardline revolutionaries and the young people who want an end to the nation’s economic isolation heightens with every passing year. There are dozens of theories about how Iran’s future plays out, from a war with Israel or the United States to a coup led by disaffected young people. But of all the potentials on that list, every peaceful scenario involves ballot boxes, polling places, and indelible ink on forefingers. Surely this is a List of Hope we can all support.
ballotball in iran
Voters elect the President, Maglis, and Assembly of Experts, but only the Assembly has the authority to appoint a new Supreme Leader.