1979 Iranian Constitutional Assembly election

none Flag of Iran (1964).svg Iran parliamentary Iranian legislative election, 1967#Constitutional Assembly 1967 20,857,391The 1979 Assembly of Experts for the Drafting of the Constitution Election The Iran Social Science Data Portal Princeton University http://www.princeton.edu/irandataportal/elections/experts/1979/ 10 August 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20150924115857/http://www.princeton.edu/irandataportal/elections/experts/1979/ 2015-09-24 dead 51.71% All 73 seats in the Assembly for the Final Review of the Constitution 3–4 August 1979Zabir Sepehr 2012 Iran Since the Revolution (RLE Iran D) 1136833005 Taylor & Francis 34–35 no 150x150px Mohammad Beheshti Islamic Republican Party Tehran 55≈66 no 150x150px Mehdi Bazargan Freedom Movement of Iran Did not stand 3≈8 no 150x150px Mohammad Kazem Shariatmadari Muslim People's Republican Party Did not stand 3≈7 no Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou"p1945" Credentials of Ghassemlou were rejected. Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan West Azerbaijan 1 no 150x150px Massoud Rajavi People's Mujahedin of Iran Tehran (defeated) 0 no 150x150px Habibollah Peyman Movement of Militant Muslims Tehran (defeated) 0 no 150x150px Farrokh Negahdar Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas Did not stand 0 no 150x150px Noureddin Kianouri Tudeh Party of Iran Tehran (defeated) 0 no 150x150px Dariush Forouhar Nation Party of Iran Did not stand 0 Constitutional Convention elections were held in Iran on 3 and 4 August 1979. The result was a victory for the Islamic Republican Party.Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen Florian Grotz Christof Hartmann 2001 Elections in Asia: A Data Handbook Oxford University Press Iran I 74 0-19-924958-X There were 10,784,932 votes cast in the elections, marking 51.71% turnout. Of all members elected, 68% were clerics. The new constitution drawn up by the body was approved by the voters in a referendum in December. Campaign During the elections, Islamic Republican Party had the upper hand when many clerical organizations and friday prayer imams endorsed IRP candidates and the National Television gave them extra time. Their campaign literature featured large pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini, who urged the voters to elect candidates with "Islamic qualifications", on the grounds that only such candidates are able to draft a genuine Islamic constitution. Different leftist groups fielded candidates for the elections, including the Tudeh Party of Iran, the Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas, the Organization of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class and the Socialist Workers' Party of Iran. Among the nominees of the latter was the only soldier to run in the elections and two people in Khuzestan Province who campaigned while being jailed.Robert Jackson Alexander Socialist Workers' Party — HKS International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement Duke University Press 1991 082231066X registration https://archive.org/details/internationaltro01alex_2 People's Mujahedin of Iran ran 26 candidates under its banner, including Massoud Rajavi in Tehran, Mousa Khiabani, Ahmad Hanifnejad and two others in Azerbaijan, eleven in central provinces, six in the northern provinces of Caspian and four in Khorasan.Ervand Abrahamian Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin I.B.Tauris 1989 9781850430773 3 Society and culture in the modern Middle East 193 To The Masses Boycott Several parties including National Front and National Democratic Front boycotted the elections in protest to the new press law, the result of which was to close many newspapers.Michael Axworthy Revolutionary Iran: A History of the Islamic Republic Oxford University Press 9780190468965 2016 159 They also protested the election method, in which the voters should write names of the candidates on the ballot slips. They regarded it questionable, considering the high rate of illiteracy at the time.Daṿid Menashri Iran: a decade of war and revolution Holmes & Meier 9780841909496 1990 86 https://archive.org/details/irandecadeofwara00mena/page/86 Pan-Iranist Party was also among the boycotting groups. A Chronological Survey of the Iranian Revolution Nicholas M. Nikazmerad Iranian Studies 13 1-4 327–368 1980 4310346 Conduct The elections were held nationwide, except for two constituencies in Kurdistan Province, where an insurgency was underway. The voting age was reduced to 16 before the elections to make more citizens eligible to vote. Results Results of the 1979 Iranian Constitutional Assembly election The Islamic Republican Party and its Khomeinist allies won the election, securing an absolute majority of seats. Of all members elected, 58 were candidates supported by the IRP-led Great Islamic Coalition while the Freedom Movement of Iran and the Muslim People's Republican Party had endorsed 7 and 6 respectively (some were included in more than one list).Arshin Adib-Moghaddam A Critical Introduction to Khomeini 2014 Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-72906-3 112 The IRP was successful nationwide except for East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, both MPRP strongholds, as well as Sistan and Baluchestan where Sunni candidates won. Secular candidates were defeated by a wide margin and most of the members elected were not only Islamist, but also were clerics, as stated by Ervand Abrahamian: The winners included 15 ayatollahs, 40 hojjat al-Islams, and 11 IRP-sponsored intellectuals. The only successful candidates not affiliated with the IRP were: Taleqani, who obtained by far the most votes in Tehran – however, he died soon after the elections; another Tehran cleric close to both Taleqani and the Mojahedin; two provincial clerics sympathetic to Bazargan; three delegates from Azarbayjan sponsored by Shariatmadari's Islamic People’s Republican Party; one member of the Liberation Movement; one spokesman of the Kurdish Democratic Party, who was promptly barred from his seat; and the four representatives of the official religious minorities, the Armenians, Assyrians, Jews and Zoroastrians.Ervand Abrahamian Radical Islam: the Iranian Mojahedin I.B.Tauris 1989 9781850430773 3 Society and culture in the modern Middle East 54–55 The Islamic Republic Summary A summarised results of the parties that won seats at the election is as follows: center|300pxPartySeats% Islamic Republican Party55 73 Islamic Republican Party75.3 Freedom Movement of Iran6 73 Freedom Movement of Iran8.2 Muslim People's Republican Party4 73 Muslim People's Republican Party5.5 Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan"p1945"1 73 Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan1.4Source: Nohlen et al. (2001) + ↓ 55 7 6 4 1 IRP Others FMI MPRP KDPI References Iran Politics Modern history Category:Aftermath of the Iranian Revolution Iran Constitutional Category:Constitutional elections in Iran Iran Category:Constituent assembly elections in Asia