Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati elected to head Iran’s Assembly of Experts

The 89-year-old ayatollah is one of the few hardliners who secured re-election in a February vote that saw a landslide for reformist and moderates in the capital, and big gains elsewhere.

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, 86, will head Iran’s Assembly of Experts. Behrouz Mehri / AFP

TEHRAN // Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati was chosen to head Iran’s Assembly of Experts on Tuesday, the body which oversees the work of the country’s supreme leader and will elect his successor, state television said.

The 89-year-old is one of the few hardliners who won re-election in a February vote that resulted in a landslide for reformist and moderates in the capital, and big gains elsewhere.

Ayatollah Jannati was voted chairman of the 88-member assembly with 51 votes.

No moderates or reformists stood for the post.

Former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who had chaired the assembly until 2011 and who topped the polls in Tehran three months ago, did not put his name forward. Media reports suggested he could muster no more than 20 of the assembly’s votes.

Two other conservatives, Tehran prayer leader Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini, a moderate with reformist support, and Mahmoud Hashemi Sharhoudi, the former judiciary chief, won 21 and 13 votes respectively.

Despite the advances for reformists in February’s election, the assembly remained controlled by conservatives.

In Tehran, Mr Rafsanjani won and president Hassan Rouhani came third, but in the provinces conservatives kept their seats.

Prominent hardliners lost their seats, however, including outgoing chairman Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi and Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, a close adviser to ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is 76 and, should he die during its eight-year term, the assembly will have the task of electing his successor.

The supreme leader has the final say on all matters of state in Iran.

* Agence France-Presse