Original question:

I work at a research institute and I would like to know more about the electoral system in Iran.

Could you let me know where I can find this information?

Links to related resources:

• Iranian constitution on NetIran’s homepage.
• IranMania has an explanation of the electoral system.
• MERIA has a research guide with many links to lots of different sources. This is a good place to start further research on Iran in general and the Iranian political situation in particular.
• IFES Election Guide: Iran - Country Profile
• Wikipedia: Elections in Iran

ACE Network Facilitator's response:

Thank you for your question. The popularly elected legislative assembly in Iran is the Islamic Consultative Assembly: the Majles-e-Shura-ye-Eslami or simply the Majlis.

The electoral system for this assembly is not entrenched in the constitution but is specified by ordinary law. The electoral system in use for the 2000 elections was a Two-Round System (TRS) which means that the election was carried out in two rounds to fill all the seats in a constituency if enough candidates did not get the required level of support in the first round.

A general description of the TRS can be found in the Electoral System topic area of the ACE Encyclopaedia. 

In Iran, each elector has one vote and there are a varying number of seats to be filled in each constituency. After the first round of the election the votes are calculated and the candidates who have received the highest number of votes and at least a required minimum percentage of votes get a seat in the Majlis. How many candidates get a seat in this round is therefore restricted to how many seats there are in the constituency and how many candidates have reached the minimum percentage level of votes.

An absolute majority is not required – as it is in many other TRS – to acquire a seat in this first round, but a plurality of 25% is sufficient. This was changed just before the 2000 election from a one-third minimum as a compromise between the previous 33% and a suggested simple plurality. If there are still seats to be filled after the first round there will be a second round, a runoff, between twice as many candidates as there are seats left to be filled in the constituency (or simply all the candidates that are left in the election if there are fewer candidates left than twice the number of seats).

In this round only a simple plurality of the votes is required to be elected. The president is also elected through a TRS. This is specified in Article 117 of the Constitution.

What is interesting about the Iranian arrangement is that the Majlis is only a consultative assembly. First of all, those who wish to run as candidates in an election has to go through thorough scrutiny. They have to fulfil a number of criteria: e.g. be a practicing Muslim, hold at least one higher degree, have no "bad" reputation in the respective constituency and be of good physical health.

They are audited by a number of different offices and each office presents their findings to the Guardians Council, which in its turn decides whether or not the candidature is "legitimate". If a candidate is rejected the candidate can contest the decision, but since no legal reason for the decision is given the possibilities of a contestation are limited.

A large number of candidates are rejected before each election. Apart from scrutinizing all candidates, the Guardians Council also scrutinizes all laws passed by the Majlis to ensure that they are in accordance with the constitution and with Islam. The Guardians Council is not elected by popular vote but is appointed partly by the "Leader", The Ayatollah (who is the chief of state) and partly by the Majlis who selects from a list of approved Muslim jurists nominated by the Head of the Judicial Power.

The chief of state, Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei is appointed for life and can therefore not be removed from office in popular elections.

Freedom House describes the country as "Not Free" and has done so since the beginning of their country ratings in the early 1970's - with the exception of a few "Partly Free" years in the 1980's.

The opinions expressed by the ACE Network Facilitator do not necessarily reflect those of the ACE Partner organizations.

ACE PRACTITIONERS' NETWORK