Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Dec. 18 The following won seats in Tehran in the Assembly of Experts elections held on Friday: Iran Focus
Tehran, Iran, Dec. 18 The following won seats in Tehran in the Assembly of Experts elections held on Friday:
1 – Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former President and current Chairman of the State Expediency Council (SEC)
2 – Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani, Tehran Friday prayers leader
3 – Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, current Chairman of the Assembly of Experts
4 Mohammad Yazdi
5 – Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Chairman of the Guardians Council
6 – Ayatollah Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, long-time mentor of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
7 – Hassan Rowhani, former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) and former chief nuclear negotiator
8 – Qorban-Ali Dori Najaf-Abadi, former chief of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS)
9 – Mohsen Kazerooni
10 – Seyyed Mohsen Agha Mohammad-Ali Kharrazi
11 – Reza Ostadi Moqaddam
12 – Abdolnabi Namazi
13 – Mohammad Baqeri Kani
14 – Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Gilani
15 – Mohsen Qomi
16 – Ayatollah Mohammad Hassan Mar’ashi
The 86-member Assembly of Experts is an exclusively clerical body entrusted with the task of selecting the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution.
Following strict vetting of candidates by the Guardians Council, some districts were left with only one candidate.
Far from being a popularity contest, analysts have described the poll as a manifestation of factional feuding.
Reliable sources have told Iran Focus that voter turnout across much of the country was low, barring several voting stations in the Iranian capital which had been designated for foreign media to monitor.
Reports posted on Iranian weblogs as well as opposition sources claim that there was widespread rigging at the polls.
Assembly members are elected to eight-year terms. Polling was last conducted in 1998. This year the elections coincided with the countrys municipal elections.
