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President Rouhani runs for Iran's Assembly of Experts elections

Xinhua, December 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani announced on Monday that he will run for the elections of Assembly of Experts slated for Feb. 25, 2016.

Iran's Assembly of Experts is a deliberative body of 88 Mujtahids, or Islamic theologians, charged with electing and removing the Supreme Leader of Iran and supervising his activities. Current laws require the assembly to meet biannually to discuss the issues around the leadership of the country.

The assembly is an important Iranian political institution, since it assures the nation that there would be no vacuum in the leadership of the country, Rouhani said when he registered as a candidate for the membership in the body on Monday.

The leadership is the most important pillar in the country's political structure as it guarantees the national unity and coordination to facilitate tackling the problems of the country, he added.

Direct vote of people decides on the members of the assembly from lists of candidates approved by Iranian high legislative body of Guardian Council.

The 2016 election is important in the sense that it may alter the aged conservative-dominated texture of the assembly with the new young moderate members.

So far, over 240 Mujtahids have enrolled for the competitions; among them Hassan Khomeini, the moderate grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

A landmark deal clinched between Iran and the world powers in June this year to resolve the decade-long standoff over Tehran's controversial nuclear program was the result of electing moderate President Rouhani in 2013. Endit