Assembly of Experts

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The Assembly of Experts meets in former senate building in Tehran

The Assembly of Experts^[1] (also Assembly of Experts of the Leadership) of Iran (Persian: مجلس خبرگان رهبری, Majles-e-Khobregan or Majles-e-Khebregan), is a congressional body of 86 Mujtahids which elects the Supreme Leader and supervises his activities. Members of the assembly are elected by direct public vote to eight year terms. Current laws requires the assembly to meet for at least two days, twice annually.^[2]^[3]

1 Functions
2 History
3 Fourth Assembly
4 Third Assembly
5 References and notes
6 See also
7 External links

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According to the Iranian Constitution, the assembly is in charge of supervising, dismissing and electing the Supreme Leader. In the event of his death, resignation or dismissal, the Experts shall take steps within the shortest possible time to appoint a new Leader.^[4] "Whenever the Leader becomes incapable of fulfilling his constitutional duties, or lobs one of the qualifications mentioned in" Constitution, "or it becomes known that he did not possess some of the qualifications initially, he will be dismissed."^[5] (The assembly has never dismissed a sitting Supreme Leader.)

The Experts are to review and consult among themselves concerning Islamic jurists possessing the qualifications of leadership. Constitutionally these criteria include "Islamic scholarship, justice, piety, right political and social perspicacity, prudence, courage, administrative facilities and adequate capability for leadership."^[4] In the event they find one of the jurists better versed in Islamic regulations, the subjects of the fiqh, or in political and social issues, or possessing general popularity or special prominence for any of the qualifications of leadership, they shall elect him as Supreme Leader. Otherwise, in the absence of such a candidate, the Experts shall elect and declare one of themselves as Supreme Leader.^[4]

The assembly gathers every six months. Activities of the assembly include compiling a list of those eligible to become leader in the event of the current leader's death, resignation, or dismissal. This is done by the 107/109 commission. ^[6] Monitoring the current leader to make sure he continues to meet all the criteria listed in the constitution. This is done by the 111 commission. ^[7] Members of assembly report to this commission about the issues concerning the current leader, and the commission can then order an emergency meeting of the assembly. If the commission denies this, the members can ask the general assembly for a vote, and if most of the members of assembly decide, there will be an emergency meeting of the assembly for discussing the current leader. The meetings, meeting notes, and reports of the assembly are confidential and not made available to anyone outside the assembly, except for the sitting Supreme Leader.^[8]

The constitution does not specify requirements for members of the assembly, leaving the assembly itself to put limits on who may be a candidate. The assembly has passed laws to require all its members be experts in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), ^[9] authorizing the Guardian Council to vet candidates for Ijtihad proficiency using written and oral examinations. This law is being challenged by the reformists, and their 2006 election campaign included changing this law to allow non-clerics into the assembly, and reforming the law that allows Guardian Council to vet candidates.^[10]^[11]

Currently, the average age of its members is over 60 years, which results in many mid-term elections.

See also: Assembly of Experts for Constitution

The Assembly of Experts of the Leadership was first elected and convened in 1983. The first Assembly of Experts chose Ayatollah Montazeri as the successor to Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Khomeini. In 1989, however, they reversed their decision and dismissed him after Khomeini denounced him.^[12] Following the death of Ruhollah Khomeini on June 3, 1989, the Assembly of Experts chose Ali Khamenei to be his successor as Supreme Leader in what proved to be a smooth transition.^[13] Initially, a council of three members, "Ali Meshkini, Mousavi Ardabili and Ali Khamenei", were proposed for Leadership. After rejection of a Leadership Council by the assembly, and lack of votes for Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Golpaygani, Khamenei became the Supreme Leader by two third of the votes.^[14]

The members of Assembly of Experts are elected every 8 years. It has therefore formed 4 terms, beginning in 1983, 1991 and 1999. The term formed in 2007, will exceptionally lasts ten years due to the "election aggregation" plan of Iran, put into place to allow the government to run one simultaneous election for both the Assembly of Experts and Parliament, thereby economizing election costs.

As all of their meetings and notes are strictly confidential, the assembly has never been known to challenge or otherwise publicly overseen any of the Supreme Leader's decisions.^[15]

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The election for the fourth assembly took place on 15 December 2006 and was convened on 19 February 2007. Ali Meshkini was re-elected as chairman. The changes in the presiding board from the 3rd assembly was the replacement of Mohammad Yazdi with Ebrahim Amini, who has retired, as the 2nd deputy chairman; and election of Hassan Rohani as provisionist.^[16]

Of particular note is the victory of pragmatist former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani list, over hard-line candidates associated with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for positions in the 86-member Assembly of Experts. Rafsanjani lost out to Ahmadinejad in the 2005 election runoff for President. Mr. Rafsanjani won nearly twice as many votes as hard-liner Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi. Final results for the Assembly of Experts showed that more than 65 candidates close to Mr. Rafsanjani were elected. At 60 percent, voter turnout was much higher than in previous years.

The top 16 candidates in Tehran were announced as: Partial results