To qualify to run, candidates must be masters of Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), pass written and oral exams under the supervision of the Constitutional Council, and be approved by the Council. The Council’s members are also members of the Assembly of Experts.
Organized by the Constitutional Council, the one-day written exam for the second by-elections of the fifth Assembly of Experts was held in the holy city of Qom under the supervision of the Council’s Islamic jurists (Faqihs).
A total of 88 hopeful candidates, representing four constituencies in provinces of Tehran, Qom, Mazandaran, and Khorasan Razavi, have registered to run for the vacant seats in the upcoming Assembly of Experts elections. The Assebmly will sit until 2024.
The Constitutional Council will announce the results before the elections in June 18 and notify the candidates.
The Assembly of Experts elects and oversees the activities of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, and is in a position of authority to either appoint or dismiss the Leader.
Members are directly elected to office by the people for an eight-year term. The body holds biannual meetings to review major national issues and every other year to appoint a new chairman.
In 1989, the Assembly picked Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei to succeed the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini.
In March 1979, a national referendum was held with the question "Islamic Republic, yes or no." Some 98.2 percent of the voters said "yes." Following this victory, the Iranian Constitution of 1906 was declared invalid and a new constitution for an Islamic Republic was drafted and ratified by a referendum during the first week of December the same year.
The first elections for the Assembly of Experts were held in December 1982 and the Assembly convened in 1983.
In late February 2016, the government arranged a double election process to hold elections for the 10th Parliament and the 5th Assembly of Experts. On February 26 of that year, Iranians went to the polls to elect 88 jurisprudential experts out of more than 800 prospective candidates for the 5th Assembly of Experts. The elections took place simultaneously.
Qualifications criteria for the senior clerical body include Islamic scholarship, justice, piety, political discernment and social perspicacity, prudence, courage and adequate capability for the task itself.