Jannati's Seat in the Assembly of Experts Goes to Mohammadi Kermani; Assembly Under the Control of Khamenei's Appointees

Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Kermani, former representative of Khamenei in the IRGC and current member of the Expediency Discernment Council, appointed by Khamenei, was elected as the head of the Assembly of Experts by the newly elected members. In the inaugural session of the sixth term of the Assembly of Experts held this morning in Tehran, Mohammadi Kermani initially presided over the meeting as the temporary chairman but was later elected as the head of the assembly for a two-year term by 55 votes from this 88-member assembly. Ahmad Jannati, the long-serving secretary of the Guardian Council who did not participate in this election, previously held the presidency of this assembly. Ebrahim Raisi and Mohammad Ali Al-Hashem, who were killed in an air accident on Sunday afternoon in East Azerbaijan Province, were also members of this new assembly. Today's session of the Assembly of Experts was opened with a message from Ali Khamenei. According to the Islamic Republic's constitution, the Assembly of Experts is responsible for electing and supervising the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran, but in practice, all members of this assembly are either Khamenei's appointees in various provinces of Iran or have been handpicked through six clerics of the Guardian Council under the pretext of 'qualification approval,' four of whom are also current members of the Assembly of Experts. Critics and opponents of the Islamic Republic consider the conduct of elections in Iran to lack the minimum standards of a free, fair, and healthy election. In the two elections held in recent months in Iran, the lowest level of participation since the establishment of the Islamic Republic was recorded. Islamic Republic officials have announced that the fourteenth round of voting to elect the head of the Islamic Republic government will be held on July 8 of this year to determine a replacement for Ebrahim Raisi in this position. According to the decision of the heads of the three branches of government, candidate registration will take place from June 10 to 14, and their campaign period will be from June 23 to the morning of July 7. Hassan Rouhani responded to the Guardian Council in a 'letter to the people'; 'the directly elected representative of the people' does not have freedom of expression even to the extent of a citizen. The spokesperson for the Guardian Council reacted to Hassan Rouhani's objection to his disqualification: 'These remarks are not new.' Hassan Rouhani stated that the reason for his disqualification was the manner of implementing the 'JCPOA' and 'insulting the Guardian Council.' Participation 'less than 35 percent' in the Islamic Republic elections; intra-government competition extended to the second round in 15 provinces. The end of the election display under the shadow of 'ambiguity' in the voting process; controversies surrounding the removal of the requirement to use identification cards. Sadegh Amoli Larijani, head of the Expediency Discernment Council, was removed from the Assembly of Experts.