26 February and 29 April 2016 2020 → 2016 2012 New 1 | 2016 2016 New New | |
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Turnout 62% (first round)
59% (second round) | ||
Parliamentary elections were held in Iran on 26 February 2016 to elect members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly for all seats in the 10th parliamentary election in the Islamic Republic era, and the 35th since the Persian Constitutional Revolution. A second round was held on 29 April 2016 for some constituencies where candidates failed to obtain the required minimum 25 percent of votes cast. The elected MPs will serve from May 28, 2016 to May 27, 2020.
Contents
The election was held as part of a general election which also elected members of the Assembly of Experts. This election was the first time that both bodies were elected simultaneously.
There were 54,915,024 registered voters (in Iran, the voting age is 18). More than 12,000 people filed to run for office. Nomination of 5,200 of candidates, mostly Reformists, were rejected by the Guardian Council and 612 individuals withdrew.
Electoral system
The 290-seat Islamic Consultative Assembly has 285 directly elected members and five seats reserved for the Zoroastrians, Jews, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians and Armenians (one for Armenians in the north of Iran and one for Armenians in the south).
The 285 directly elected seats are elected from 196 constituencies, which are a mix of single and multi-member. In single-member constituencies candidates must receive at least one-third of the votes in the first round. If no candidate passes this threshold, a second round is held with the two highest-vote candidates. In multi-member constituencies, voters cast as many votes as there are seats available; candidates must receive votes from at least one-third of the voters to be elected; if not all the seats are filled in the first round of voting, a second round is held with twice the number of candidates as there are seats to be filled (or all the original candidates if there are fewer than double the number of seats).
Voters must be Iranian citizens aged 18 or over, and shall not have been declared insane.
Qualifications
According to Iranian law, in order to qualify as a candidate one must:
A candidate will be disqualified if he/she is found to be mentally impaired, actively supporting the Shah or supporting political parties and organizations deemed illegal or been charged with anti-government activity, converted to another faith or has otherwise renounced the Islamic faith, have been found guilty of corruption, treason, fraud, bribery, is an addict or trafficker or have been found guilty of violating Sharia law. Also, candidates must be literate; candidates cannot have played a role in the pre-1979 government, be large landowners, drug addicts or have convictions relating to actions against the state or apostasy. Government ministers, members of the Guardian Council and High Judicial Council are banned from running for office, as is the Head of the Administrative Court of Justice, the Head of General Inspection, some civil servants and religious leaders and any member of the armed forces.
Campaigns and voting
The conservative camp also known as principlists, consisting of various groups, held the majority of the parliament. The camp spent months bringing together their various wings and formed the “Principlists Grand Coalition”, headed by former speaker of the parliament Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel. The coalition included traditional conservative organizations most notably the Combatant Clergy Association, conservatives close to ex-president Ahmadinejad –who some worked under the name of YEKTA Front– and hardline conservatives largely opposed to the government's policies, like the Stability Front. Campaigning on "government's failure to deliver on promises of economic benefits from the nuclear deal, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and the lifting of sanctions"; they emphasized their economic backgrounds. On foreign policy, they were against "allowing American influence to permeate Iranian society and economy".
The incumbent speaker Ali Larijani, declined to join the bloc because "they have not provided the necessary mechanisms for the creation of unity" and said he will run independently.
The reformists and moderates, centrist allies of President Rouhani, made the “Alliance of Reformists and Government Supporters” or as the reformists named it, the “Pervasive Coalition of Reformists: The Second Step”, a name suggesting a sequel to the first step, 2013 presidential election victory. The coalition was headed by Mohammad Reza Aref and included pro-government moderate conservatives who were on the Followers of Wilayat fraction of Ali Larijani's companions, and aimed to prevent the hardliners from entering the parliament. Larijani himself was also backed by the list. Mohammad Khatami, who renamed the coalition to the “List of Hope” and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani endorsed the list, alongside Hassan Rouhani who tacitly supported them by sending text message to every cell phone encouraging citizens to “to build the future of the country with plenty of hope”. The moderates faced considerable challenges in the Guardian Council’s vetting process and many of their lead figures were disqualified.
Ali Motahari, who was on the List of Hope, decided to issue another list called “People's Voice” which was mostly made up by moderate conservatives.
Among opposition parties, National Front, Nation Party and Pan-Iranist Party boycotted the elections. Freedom Movement of Iran called on voters to cast their ballots and backed reformists.
Ali Khamenei, Supreme leader of Iran, voted on the beginning of election day. He had no comment on the result of the election but asked people for high turnout in election.
Opinion polls
According to a poll conducted on 18 February 2016 with a ±4% margin of sampling error voters favor supporters of Hassan Rouhani among other politicians:
Only 30% of the voters are satisfied with their incumbent representative in the Parliament, with 28% satisfied with the overall performance of the 9th term of Majlis (2012–2016) while 43% are unsatisfied. With the rise of Hassan Rouhani's presidential approval ratings from 54% in August/September 2015 to 67% in December 2015/January 2016, more than 40% undecided voters and some 25% approval of Reformists and Moderates –that are allied under the name of Pervasive Coalition of Reformists– there is a chance of swing towards them.
Results
The results indicate that the results would make a hung parliament with reformists having a plurality. The final results are:
Four seats are vacant.