Iran: Parliament, 26 February 2016

At stake in this election:

• 290 seats in the Majles-e Shoraye Eslami (Islamic Consultative Assembly)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: Supreme Leader Ali Hoseini-KHAMENEI (since 4 June 1989)
• Head of Government: President Hassan Fereidun ROUHANI (since 3 August 2013)
• Assembly: Iran has a unicameral Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majles-e Shoraye Eslami) with 290 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• In the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majles-e Shoraye Eslam) 290 members are directly elected in single- and multi-seat constituencies by a two-round vote, with members serving 4-year terms. Additionally, five seats are reserved for a representative of religious minorities, including Zoroastrians, Jews, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, and Armenian Christians. All candidates to the Islamic Consultative Assembly must be approved by the Guardian Council, a 12-member group of which 6 are appointed by the Supreme Leader and 6 are jurists nominated by the judiciary and elected by the Assembly.

Note: In Iran, although political parties exist, larger coalitions often more accurately reflect political organization and structure, with the primary divide being between principalists, who advocated for power of the supreme leader, and more progressive-minded reformists.

Last Election:

• In the previous election for the Islamic Consultative Assembly in 2012 with the coalition of conservatives taking 182 seats. In the 2012 election, many of the reformists boycotted the election, and the coalition of reformists took 75. In addition, 14 seats went to other groups.

Main candidates in the election:

• As noted above, the larger focus is not on political parties (although they do exist), but rather on whether or not the upcoming election will allow the moderates to retake more seats, or if the fundamentalists will retain control.
• Conservative Parties/Coalitions
  • United Front of Principalists/Jabhah-e Muttahid-e Uṣūlgarāyān
  • Front of Islamic Revolution Stability/Jebhe-ye Paydari
• Reformist Parties     
  • Executives of Construction Party/Hezb-e Motalefeh-ye Eslami
  • Islamic Iran Participation Front/Jebheye Mosharekate Iran-e Eslaami

Population and number of registered voters:

·         Population: 81,824,270 (July 2015 est.)

·         Registered Voters: 50,483,192 (2013 est.)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 40,323,925

·         Is Iran a signatory to CEDAW: No

·         Has Iran ratified CEDAW: No

·         Gender Quota: No

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 9 (3.1%)

·         Human Development Index Position: 69 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is Iran a signatory to CRPD: N/A

·         Has Iran ratified CRPD: Yes Accession (23 October 2009)

·         Population with a disability: 3,000,000