Why do these elections matter?
Iran is holding parliamentary elections on March 1, the first general vote since the women- and girl-led uprising that swept through the country in 2022, calling for an end to the Islamic Republic’s rule. The government violently crushed the protests, but calls for change remain and many Iranians see boycotting the vote as an act of protest.
Turnout in the election is expected to be low, especially in the capital, Tehran, and other major cities, according to the government’s own polls cited in Iranian media. Elections are important because voter turnout is seen by both supporters and critics of the government as a barometer of legitimacy. Opponents say they are staying out of the vote to signal they no longer believe meaningful change can come through the ballot box under the current system.
There is a separate election on March 1 to elect members of an 88-seat body called the Assembly of Experts. Iran’s Constitution states that the assembly elects the supreme leader, the supreme clerical authority, who has the final say on all key state matters and serves as the supreme commander of the armed forces. The assembly also acts as an advisory body to the supreme leader and can supervise or fire him, although it has never done so.
The current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is 84 and has been in his role for more than three decades. It is widely expected that the next assembly will choose his successor.
Are the elections fair and free in Iran?
Iran’s elections are not considered fair and free, according to critics and human rights groups, due to a murky candidate vetting process and massive relegations by the Guardian Council. The council is accused of rigging elections, both presidential and parliamentary, because it effectively removes the element of choice from the public and limits its choices to candidates it deems fit for office.
Elections in Iran were once competitive, with candidates from all major political parties on the ballot. The results were unpredictable and the participation high. But in recent years, voters have had only conservative candidates to choose from.
In the upcoming parliamentary elections, the names of the final candidates were announced less than two weeks before the March 1 vote, and the election campaign began 10 days before it. For Iranians planning to vote, there is little time to learn about the candidates and understand the issues they plan to tackle once elected. For those boycotting the vote, the last-minute announcement of candidates and the rushed campaign are more reasons to consider the election neither free nor fair.
Who is running for Parliament?
The candidates must all be vetted and approved by a 12-member appointed clerical body called the Guardian Council, which has ruled out a range of candidates from independents to centrists to nearly every name floated by the reformist political faction. The Reform Front, the coalition of reformist parties that generally favors more social freedom and engagement with the West, announced that it had no candidates in this election and called it a “meaningless, non-competitive and ineffective election”.
The majority of 15,200 candidates were allowed to be elected by conservative political parties. They want to fill the 290 seats in Parliament that each have a four-year term. The candidates include 1,713 women, which is more than double the number who took part in the last parliamentary elections in 2020.
