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Politics of Iran takes place in the framework of an Islamic theocratic republic. The December 1979 constitution, and its 1989 amendment, define the political, economic, and social order of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It declares that Shi'a Islam of the Twelver (Jaafari) sect is Iran's official religion.

Political conditions

Iran's post-revolution difficulties have included an eight-year war with Iraq, internal political struggles and unrest, and economic disorder. The early days of the regime were characterized by severe human rights violations and political turmoil, including the seizure of the United States embassy compound and its occupants on November 4, 1979, by Iranian militants. As the United States no longer has formal diplomatic relations with Iran, Switzerland handles U.S. interests in Iran.

By mid-1982, a succession of power struggles eliminated first the center of the political spectrum and then the leftists, leaving only the clergy and their supporters in power. There has been some moderation of excesses both internally and internationally, although there are claims that Iran still remains a sponsor of terrorism.

The Islamic Republic Party was Iran's dominant political party until its dissolution in 1987; Iran had no functioning political parties until the Executives of Construction Party formed in 1994 to run for the fifth parliamentary elections, mainly out of executive body of the government close to the then-president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani. After the election of Mohammad Khatami in 1997, more parties started to work, mostly of the reformist movement and opposed by hard-liners. This led to incorporation and official activity of many other groups, even including hard-liners. The Iranian Government is opposed by a few armed political groups, including the Mojahedin-e-Khalq, the People's Fedayeen, and the Kurdish Democratic Party.

In February, 2003, for the second time local elections had taken place since being introduced in 1999 as part of President Khatami's concept of a civil society at the grassroots level. 905 city councils and 34,205 village councils were up for election. In Tehran and some of the major cities, all of the seats were taken back by conservatives over reformists. This swing was caused by widespread abstention from the local elections. In Tehran only about 10% of the electorate voted, following appeals by reformist groups.

In February 2004 Parliament elections, the Council of Guardians banned thousands of candidates, including most of the reformist members of the parliament and all the candidates of the Islamic Iran Participation Front party from running. This led to a win by the conservatives of at least 70% of the seats. Approximately 60% of the elegible voting population participated in the elections.

Supreme Leader (Valiye Faghih or The Jurisprudent Guardian)

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Office	Name	Party	Since
Supreme Leader (Rahbar)	Ayatollah Ali Khamenei		June 4, 1989

Valiye Faghih or The Jurisprudent Guardian, more commonly known as the Supreme Leader is the head of state in Iran (as opposed to head of government which is the President). The concept of velayat-e-faqih or the guardianship of the jurisprudent was introduced by Ayatollah Khomeini and was included in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran after the revolution. According to the constitution the Supreme Leader is in charge of co-ordinating and solving disputes between the 3 branches of the state (Executive, Legistative, Judicial). The constitution gives the Supreme Leader vast powers, which include:

Appointing the head of the Judicial Branch
Supreme command of the armed forces
Issuing decrees for national referenda
Declaration of war and peace, and the mobilization of the armed forces
Dismissal of the President, after the Supreme Court holds him guilty of the violation of his constitutional duties, or after a vote of the Parliament testifying to his incompetence on the basis of Article 89 of the Constitution

Contrary to popular belief, the Supreme Leader is not an unelected post. According to the Iranian constitution (having mentioned Ayatollah Khomeini exempt from this rule as the founder of the revolution), the Supreme Leader is elected by a congress-like body called the Assembly of Experts (whose members are elected by direct public vote to 8 year terms). The Supreme Leader is appointed for life after being elected; however, the Assembly, which is also in charge of making sure that the Leader complies with his legal duties, has the power to dismiss and replace him at any time. The point that has caused the Iranian political system to be known by many as an undemocratic system, is in fact an ordinary (not constitutional) law which creates a closed loop of power, discussed in the next section.

The closed loop of power

According to current election laws, a body of 12 experts called the Guardian Council are in charge of overseeing and approving electoral candidates for most national elections in Iran. The majority of the members of this body are appointed by the Supreme Leader. According to the current law, this council vets candidates of the Assembly of Experts too, which are in turn in charge of supervising and electing the Leader, which eventually creates a closed loop of power.

In addition, the current elections law requires the candidates of Assembly of Experts to be religious mujtahids which greatly narrows down the list of possible candidates.

Neither of these two laws are mandated by the constitution and are ordinary laws passed by the Parliament or the Assembly of Experts, which therefore can theoretically be reversed easily. However despite the efforts of many political activists, it has proven to be practically impossible to do so until now.

Many Iranian reformists (including Abdollah Noori) consider this to be the core legal obstacle for a truly democratic system in Iran.

Executive branch

Office	Name	Party	Since
President	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad		August 3, 2005
First Vice President	Parviz Dawoodi		September 11, 2005

The president of the republic is elected by universal suffrage to a four-year term by an absolute majority of votes and is the head of the executive branch. The president appoints and supervises the Council of Ministers (members of the cabinet), coordinates government decisions, and selects government policies to be placed before the Islamic Assembly (Parliament). According to the constitution, the President is the head of government and is emphasized as the highest ranking official in the country after the Supreme Leader. The President is in charge of enforcing the constitution and supervising the proper execution of it's laws "except for matters directly stated as duties of the Supreme Leader in the constitution".

Legislative branch

Iran elects on national level a head of government (the president), a legislature (the Majlis), and an "Assembly of Experts" (which elects the head of state, the Supreme Leader). The parliament, officially titled the Islamic Consultative Assembly, consists of 290 members elected to a four-year term in multi- and single-seat constituencies. The members are elected by direct and secret ballot. All legislation from the assembly must be reviewed by the Council of Guardians. The Council's six lawyers vote only on questions of the constitutionality of legislation; the religious members consider all bills for both constitutionality and conformity to Islamic principles. In 1988, Ayatollah Khomeini created the Expediency Discernment Council, which resolves legislative issues on which the Parliament and the Council of Guardians fail to reach an agreement. The council later became a part of the amended constitution. Since 1989, it has been used to advise the Supreme Leader on matters of national policy as well. It is composed of the heads of the three branches of government, the clerical members of the Council of Guardians, and members appointed by the Supreme Leader for three-year terms. Cabinet members and parliament committee chairs also serve as temporary members when issues under their jurisdictions are considered.

Judicial branch

Judicial authority is constitutionally vested in the Head of the Judiciary Branch, who is appointed by the Supreme Leader for five-year terms. The Head of the Judiciary Branch appoints a Supreme Court. A Minister of Justice is also appointed by the president from a list of candidates suggested by the Head of the Judiciary, but is only an administrative position. The Judiciary Branch is responsible for supervising the enforcement of all laws and for establishing judicial and legal policies.

Political parties and elections

Election results include names of political parties. See for additional information about parties the List of political parties in Iran. An overview on elections and election results is included in Elections in Iran.

**Summary of the 17 and 24 June 2005 Iranian Presidential election results**
Candidates	Votes 1st round	%	Votes 2nd round	%
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani	6,159,453	21.01	10,046,701	35.93
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad	5,710,354	19.48	17,284,782	61.69
Mehdi Karroubi	5,066,316	17.28	-	-
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf	4,075,189	13.90	-	-
Mostafa Moeen	4,054,304	13.83	-	-
Ali Larijani	1,740,163	5.94	-	-
Mohsen Mehralizadeh	1,289,323	4.40	-	-
Blank or invalid votes	1,221,940	4.17	663,770	2.37
Total (turnout 62.66% and 59.6%)	29,317,042	100	27,959,253	100

For the parliamentary elections of February 20, 2004, the Ministry of Interior Affairs announced a 50% turnout, the lowest in any general election since 1979. It was disputed by the Guardian Council, which claimed the result was closer to 60%;. Conservative forces received 54% (156 seats), reformists received 14% of the vote (40 seats), and independents (34 seats); 60 seats were up for runoff election in May 2004. In the run-up to the election many reformist candidates, including about 80 members of the outgoing parliament, were disqualified by the Guardian Council; more than a 100 MPs protested by staging a sit-in in the parliament that lasted for about 3 weeks and ended to no avail. About 120 MPs then resigned and major reformist parties and groups stated they will not take part in the election but did not boycott it. The crisis resulted in a crack in the reformist front, when the Militant Clerics Assembly, of which President Khatami is a member, announced they will participate in the election.

**Summary of the 20 February and 7 May 2004 Majlis of Iran election results**
Orientiation of candidates	Votes	%	Seats
Conservatives			156
Reformists			39
Independents			31
Elected in second round			59
Religious minorities (Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians)			5
Total (Turnout around 50 %)			290
Source: IPU

Political pressure groups and leaders

Active student groups include the pro-reform "Organization for Strengthening Unity" and "the Union of Islamic Student Societies'; groups that generally support the Islamic Republic include Ansar-e Hizballah, The Iranian Islamic Students Association, Muslim Students Following the Line of the Imam, Islam's Students, and the Islamic Coalition Association; opposition groups include the Liberation Movement of Iran and the Nation of Iran party; armed political groups that have been almost completely repressed by the government include Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK), People's Fedayeen, Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan; the Society for the Defense of Freedom

Military

The military is charged with defending Iran's borders, while the Revolutionary Guard Corps (a.k.a. Sepah) is charged mainly with maintaining internal security.

Administrative divisions

Iran consists of 30 provinces (ostaan-haa, singular: ostan): Ardabil, Azarbayjan-e Gharbi, Azarbayjan-e Sharqi, Bushehr, Chahar Mahall va Bakhtiari, Esfahan, Fars, Gilan, Golestan, Hamadan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kerman, Kermanshahan, North Khorasan, Khorasan, South Khorasan, Khuzestan, Kohkiluyeh va Buyer Ahmadi, Kordestan, Lorestan, Markazi, Mazandaran, Qom, Qazvin, Semnan, Sistan va Baluchestan, Tehran, Yazd, Zanjan. The provinces are each headed by a governor general. The provinces are further divided into counties, districts, and villages.

City and Village Councils

Local councils are elected by public vote in all cities and villages throughout Iran to 4 year terms. According to article 7 of the Iranian Constitution, these local councils together with the Parliament are "decision-making and administrative organs of the State". This section of the constitution was not implemented until 1999 when the first ever local council elections where held throughout the country. Councils have many different responsibilities including electing mayors, supervising the activies of municipalities; study of social, cultural, educational, health, economic, and welfare requirements of their constituencies; the planning and coordination of national participation in the implementation of social, economic, constructive , cultural, educational and other welfare affairs, etc.

International organization participation

CP, ECO, ESCAP, FAO, G-19, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, International Maritime Organization, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, NAM, OIC, OPCW, OPEC, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO WFTU, WEF, WHO, WMO, WTO (observer)