Election Timeline, Quotes & Factoids

February 24, 2016
Iran is scheduled to hold elections on February 26 for Parliament and the Assembly of Experts. The following is a chronology of events related to the polls, which have the potential to shift the political balance of power.
 
Dec. 17, 2015: The candidate registration period for Assembly of Experts election began.
 

Dec. 18, 2015: Hassan Khomeini, the 43-year-old grandson of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, registered for the Assembly of Experts election.  

 

Dec. 19, 2015: The candidate registration period for the parliamentary election began.
 
Dec. 23, 2015: The candidate registration period for the Assembly of Experts election ended. Some 800 people registered in total. Sixteen women registered their candidacies, marking the first time in history that women had vied for those seats.
 
Dec. 25, 2015: The candidate registration period for the parliamentary election ended. More than 12,000 people registered, more than double compared to the previous election. Women comprised 12 percent of registered parliamentary candidates, an increase of four percentage points since the last election.
 
Jan. 4, 2016: In a meeting with prayer leaders, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that opponents of the Islamic Republic might try to infiltrate Iran’s governing institutions following implementation of the nuclear deal. “If the agents of penetration somehow manage to enter the Islamic Consultative Majles parliament], the Assembly of Experts or the other foundations of the Islamic Republic, they will weaken the bases of the system and will eat them from the inside like termites.” 

 

Jan. 5, 2016: The Guardian Council invited 537 of those who registered for the Assembly of Experts election to take the qualification tests required for candidacy – among them were 10 women candidates. Some 400 ended up taking the exam. Hassan Khomeini did not take the exam. He reportedly was not specifically invited.
 
Jan. 9, 2016: Khamenei urged all Iranians to participate in the upcoming elections, even those who do not support the system of government. “There might be people who do not accept me, but they also participate in elections,” he said in a speech.
 
Jan. 17, 2016: The Guardian Council announced that less than half of those who registered for the parliamentary elections will be allowed to run. About 4,700 out of 12,000 were preliminarily approved.
 
In a press conference, President Hassan Rouhani said he was unhappy with news of disqualifications. “Hopefully the Guardian Council will look into it. And as the president, I will also use all my executive powers in this regard,” he said.
 
Jan. 18, 2016: A Reformist leader said that out of more than 3,000 reformist candidates that registered, only 30 were approved.
 
Lawmakers Mohammad Reza Tabesh said parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani was discussing the disqualifications with the Guardian Council and also seeking to create a working group that would allow rejected candidates to personally protest during a special hearing.
 
Jan. 20, 2016: Khamenei elaborated regarding the political participation of those who do not accept Iran’s system of government. He said that they should vote, but would not be allowed into parliament. His remarks were interpreted as tacit approval of the Guardian Council’s decision to disqualify nearly all of the reformist candidates.
 
Jan. 21, 2016: Rouhani stepped his criticism of the candidate vetting process. “If there is one faction and the other is not there, they don't need the February 26 elections, they go to the parliament,” he told election officials. “As the supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution indicated and ordered all to act according to the essence of the constitution, not the essence of a specific political taste, so I urgently asked the Interior and Intelligence Ministers to diligently cooperate and consult with the electoral supervisory Guardian Council in this regard.”
 
Jan. 26, 2016: The Guardian Council announced that 166 Assembly of Experts candidates were eligible to run. Out of the some 800 who originally registered, 373 were vetted. The others had withdrawn, refused to take the qualification exam or were not allowed to be vetted. It was the also the last day for the Guardian Council to inform Assembly of Experts candidates of their qualification or disqualification.
 
Hassan Khomeini’s 19-year-old son, Ahmad, announced his father’s disqualification in an Instagram post. He wrote that the Guardian Council “failed to prove” that his father was qualified. Ahmad added that the group also refused to accept testimonies of tens of top clerics who could vouch for his father’s qualifications. Therefore, the reason for Khomeini’s disqualification is “clear for all,” Ahmad wrote, perhaps implying that the council’s ruling was a political one. Khomeini has connections to influential reformist and centrist political elites. Khomeini later verified his disqualification by reposting what his son wrote.  
 

• ديشب ديگر قطعى شد كه شوراى نگهبان نتوانسته صلاحيت علمى بابا را احراز كند و نتوانستند از شهادت ده ها مرجع و عالم و فقيه به اجتهاد پى ببرند. به نظرم براى همگان علت عدم احراز ، احراز شده است ، مخصوصا كه برخى ديگر هم بدون امتحان اجتهادشان احراز شده است بگذريم؛ قبل از خواب با بابا صحبت كردم از اوضاع سؤال نمودم. يك بيت از حافظ خواند: سر ارادت ما و آستان حضرت دوست كه هر چه بر سر ما مى رود ارادت اوست

A photo posted by سيد احمد خمينى (@ahmadkhomeini) on

 
Jan. 29, 2016: Khomeini reportedly announced to a group of students and clerics that he would appeal the Guardian Council's decision. He noted that he was surprised by the Council’s rejection, and that he would appeal at the request of members of the public and political leadership. 
 
Jan. 30, 2016: Appeals from disqualified Assembly of Experts candidates were due to the Guardian Council.
 
Feb. 1, 2016: Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani criticized the Guardian Council’s decision to disqualify Khomeini and many reformist candidates at a ceremony commemorating Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s return to Tehran in 1979. According to state news, Rafsanjani referred to hardliners on the Guardian Council, saying, “They disqualified the grandson of Imam Khomeini, who is the most similar person to his grandfather…Who decided you are qualified to judge the others? Who gave you the right to take all the guns, have all the Friday prayer platform and run state television?” He added, “Without Imam Khomeini, none of these people [on the vetting panel] would have existed."
 
Feb. 2, 2016: Hardliners reacted harshly to Rafsanjani’s remarks. Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor-in-chief of hardline Kayhan newspaper, said that Rafsanjani should be feel indebted to the Khomeini family, rather than the Guardian Council. Shariatmadari claimed that Rafsanjani had persuaded the young Khomeini to register for the Assembly of Experts election. Some reformists also criticized Rafsanjani’s remarks while others defended them. 
 
Feb. 6, 2016: The Guardian Council approved an additional 1,500 candidates to run for Parliament. These were previously disqualified candidates that had appealed their case and presented new evidence of their credentials. As a result, a total of 6,180 parliamentary candidates were approved out of about 12,000 registered candidates. It remained unclear how many of the 2,970 rejected reformist candidates had been qualified. Interior Ministry spokesman Hossein Ali Amiri commented, “In no other elections have we had so many approved candidates, which is partly due to the increased number of registrations.”
 
Feb. 9, 2016 – Former President Mohammad Khatami urged voters to turnout for the Feb. 26 elections. The reformist voiced his disappointment that “capable” and “deserving figures” were disqualified, likely referencing the large number of reformist candidates that were disqualified by the Guardian Council. He argued that “mass participation” and “heated elections” were in the best interests of voters.  
 
Feb. 10, 2016: Hassan Khomeini’s appeal was rejected by the Guardian Council. Khomeini will not be allowed to run in the Assembly of Experts election. In a post on a social media platform believed to be controlled by his office, Khomeini said, “All my support from top clerics has been ignored, as have been my religious publications…I never expected they would reverse their decision…I made the appeal because people asked me to do so.” 
 
Feb. 16, 2016 – The Guardian Council finalized its list of approved parliamentary candidates, with 6,229 candidates allowed to run out of the more than 12,000 people who registered. The approved candidates included 586 women. Some election lists began to form, including a “grand coalition of principalists” (conservatives), a list of reformists led by former presidential candidate Mohammad Reza Aref, and a middle-ground “Voice of the Nation” list led by Ali Motahari, a moderate conservative. Candidates were allowed to join more than one list. 
 
Feb. 17, 2016: Khamenei warned that the United States and the West were trying to influence the results of the elections. 
 
Feb. 18, 2016: Campaigning began for parliamentary elections. Since campaigning is only permitted for one week prior to voting, candidates joined loose coalitions to improve their name recognition.
 
Feb. 24, 2016: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave a speech accusing the United States of interfering in Iran's elections. 
 
Katayoun Kishi, a research assistant, and Garrett Nada, assistant editor of The Iran Primer at the U.S. Institute of Peace, contributed to this chronology.