Iran -10 March 2015 — Iran’s most influential clerical body charged with choosing or dismissing the nation’s supreme leader has elected an old hardline cleric as its new chairman, news media citing Associated press reporting.
IRNA said Mohammad Yazdi, the deputy chairman of the 86-member Assembly of Experts, got 47 votes in his favor from among 73 clerics who attended the session. The only other contender was Hashemi Rafsanjani who got 24 votes.
AFP also said Yasdi’s election represents a heavy defeat for Hashemi Rafsanjani who previously held the position between 2007 and 2011.
Yazdi, 83, will chair the Assembly for one year, until next February, when new balloting for all Assembly members is to take place. That vote will coincide with Iran’s parliamentary elections, AP reported.
Yazdi’s election follows the death last October of the former chairman, Mahdavi Kani.
The assembly monitors Iran’s supreme leader and picks a successor after his death, which makes it potentially one of the most powerful institutions in Iran, although it does not involve itself the daily affairs of state.