President of Iran

The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: رئیس‌جمهور ایران, romanized: Rais Jomhur-e Irān) is the head of government of Iran. The president is internationally recognized as also the de jure head of state of the Islamic Republic of Iran, although the supreme leader is the de facto head of state.

The office was established after the adoption of the new constitution following the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The first presidential election was held in 1980. The president is the second in command of the executive branch of government after the supreme leader, and chairperson of the cabinet, and is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the government. The president answers to the supreme leader, who functions as the de facto head of state, and executes his decrees. The president appoints the ministers, subject to the approval of Parliament and the supreme leader, who can dismiss or reinstate any of the ministers and vice presidents at any time. The president issues decrees, sends and receives foreign ambassadors, signs referendum results and legislation approved by parliament and the judiciary, and signs treaties, protocols, contracts, after parliamentary approval. The president is listed in the United Nations' "Heads of State, Heads of Government, and Ministers for Foreign Affairs" as the country's head of state, rather than the supreme leader.

The president is elected for a four-year term in a national election by universal adult suffrage by Iranians of at least 18 years of age, and can only be reelected once if in a consecutive manner. Candidates for the presidency must be approved by the Guardian Council. Masoud Pezeshkian is currently the president of Iran, after being elected in the 2024 Iranian presidential election and being officially endorsed by the supreme leader.

History

After the Iranian Revolution of early 1979 and then the Iranian Islamic Republic referendum on March 29 and 30, the new government needed to craft a new constitution. The religious leader Ruhollah Khomeini ordered an election for the Assembly of Experts, the body tasked with writing the constitution. The assembly presented the constitution on October 24, 1979, and Khomeini and Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan approved it. The 1979 Constitution designated the religious leader as the supreme leader of Iran, with executive power divided between the president, in a largely ceremonial role, and the prime minister, holding the real executive power. Executive power was centralised through amendment of the constitution in 1989, with the post of prime minister being abolished and all his powers transferred to the president.

The first Iranian presidential election was held on January 25, 1980, and resulted in the election of Abolhassan Banisadr with 76% of the votes. Banisadr was impeached on June 22, 1981, by Parliament. Until the early election on July 24, 1981, the duties of the president were undertaken by the Provisional Presidential Council. Mohammad-Ali Rajai was elected president on July 24, 1981, and took office on August 2. Rajai was in office for less than one month because he and his prime minister were both assassinated in a bombing. Once again a Provisional Presidential Council filled the office until October 13, 1981, when Ali Khamenei was elected president. Khamenei served as president until 1989, when he succeeded Khomeini as the supreme leader of Iran. In 1989, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was elected as the president, and served until 1997. He was succeeded by Mohammad Khatami, who served from 1997 to 2005. The election on August 3, 2005 resulted in a victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The election on June 12, 2009 was reported by government authorities as a victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent candidate, although this is greatly disputed by supporters of rival candidates, who noted the statistical anomalies in voting reports and large-scale overvoting in the officially announced tallies.

Hassan Rouhani was elected in 2013, and eight years in office until 2021. He was succeeded by Ebrahim Raisi. On May 19, 2024, a helicopter carrying Raisi crashed in the East Azerbaijan Province of Iran. There were no survivors at the crash site. Raisi was the second president of Iran to have died in office. Taghi Rahmani, the husband of detained activist and Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi, said Raisi's death would not structurally change the Iranian leadership under Khamenei. Following his death, first vice president Mohammad Mokhber was designated as acting president until new elections could be held on 28 June. Masoud Pezeshkian won the presidential runoff election in July 2024 and was appointed as the President on 28 July 2024.

Qualifications and election

Chapter IX of the Constitution of Iran sets forth the qualifications for presidential candidates. The procedures for presidential election and all other elections in Iran are outlined by the supreme leader. The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term in a national election by universal adult suffrage by everyone of at least 18 years of age. Presidents can only be reelected once if in a consecutive manner. Candidates for the presidency must be approved by the Guardian Council, which is a twelve-member body consisting of six clerics selected directly by the supreme leader (who may also dismiss them and replace them at any time), and six lawyers proposed by the supreme leader–appointed head of Iran's judicial system and subsequently approved by the Majles. According to the Constitution of Iran candidates for the presidency must possess the following qualifications:

• Iranian origin;
• administrative capacity and resourcefulness;
• a good past record;
• trustworthiness and piety; and
• convinced belief in the fundamental principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the official madhhab of the country.

Within these guidelines the council vetoes candidates who it deems unacceptable. The approval process is considered to be a check on the president's power, and usually amounts to a small number of candidates being approved. In the 1997 election, for example, only four out of 238 presidential candidates were approved by the council. Some Western observers have routinely criticized the approvals process as a way for the council and supreme leader to ensure that only conservative and like-minded Islamic fundamentalists can win office. The council denies this, citing approval of Iranian reformists in previous elections. The council rejects most of the candidates stating that they are not "a well-known political figure", a requirement by the current law.

The president must be elected with a simple majority of the popular vote. If no candidate receives a majority in the first round, a runoff election is held between the top two candidates. The president is then sworn in by the Parliament.

Legality of a woman to be candidate

The legality of women running for presidency depends upon the meaning of one of the criteria the candidate is required to fill. The 115th article of the Iranian constitution states that the president must be elected from among "religious and political men" or "religious and political personalities", depending on the interpretation (Persian: رجال مذهبی و سیاسی, romanized: rejāl-e mazhabi va siāsi). In 1997, the Guardian Council used the first interpretation to reject the candidature of Azam Taleghani, the first woman to run for presidency. However, before the 2021 presidential election, the guardian council's spokesman said that legally there is no impediment for a woman to be president.

Inability

The supreme leader has the power to dismiss the elected president if he has either been impeached by Parliament or found guilty of a constitutional violation by the Supreme Court.

According to the article 131 of the Iranian constitution, "In case of death, dismissal, resignation, absence, or illness lasting longer than two months of the President or when his term in office has ended and a new president has not been elected due to some impediments, or similar other circumstances, his first deputy shall assume, with the approval of the leader, the powers and functions of the president. The Council, consisting of the speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Chief Justice, and the first deputy of the president, is obliged to arrange for a new president to be elected within a maximum period of fifty days. In case of death of the first deputy to the president, or other matters which prevent him to perform his duties or when the president does not have a first deputy, the Leader shall appoint another person in his place."

Powers and responsibilities

The president is the second-highest ranking official in Iran after the supreme leader, and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the government. The president answers to the supreme leader, who functions as the country's head of state. Unlike the executive in other countries, the president of Iran does not have full control over the government, which is ultimately under the direct control of the supreme leader. The president's duties include the following, subject to supervision, policy guidance and approval by the supreme leader: