Third Day of Registration for the Assembly of Experts; 'Mohsen Khamenei Will Not Run'

After it was announced on Saturday that more than 140 individuals had registered by the end of the third day of candidates' registration for the Assembly of Experts elections, Fars News Agency reported that Mohsen Khamenei, the son of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, will not register for the elections. On Saturday, the Deputy Minister of Interior of Iran stated that by this day, 147 candidates had registered with the Ministry of Interior and the local election offices. According to the state-run news agency IRNA, Hossein Ali Amiri added that out of this number, 94 registrations were confirmed, while the rest were in the process of completing their documents. Meanwhile, Fars News reported that follow-ups revealed that Mohsen Khamenei has decided not to register for the Assembly of Experts elections. Previously, especially with reports of Hassan Khomeini's registration for candidacy in the Assembly elections, there had been speculation about the possibility of Mohsen Khamenei, the second son of Ayatollah Khamenei, participating in these elections. 'Only one woman has registered' At the same time, Mohammad Hossein Maqimi, head of the country's election headquarters, stated on Saturday about the number of women who have registered for the Assembly of Experts that only one person has registered so far, and initial reports about other women's registrations in the provinces were incorrect. Mr. Maqimi himself had confirmed reports about the registration of Esmat Savadi in the Tehran constituency on the first day of candidate registration, stating that other women had also registered in other electoral constituencies for the Assembly elections. According to Tasnim News Agency, Ali Pourali Motlaq, Secretary of the Election Headquarters, said on Saturday that considering that in the fourth term of the Assembly of Experts, more than 490 individuals registered over seven days, it is expected that this time a record number of registrations will be broken. Mehr News Agency also reported that the number of candidates registering on Saturday was so high that they had to take numbers and wait in the Ministry of Interior's waiting room. Registration for candidates representing the fifth term of the Assembly of Experts, which began on Thursday, will continue until December 23. The elections for the fifth term of the Assembly of Experts will be held on March 1 of this year. The number of representatives in the Assembly of Experts is 88. The Assembly of Experts is the only institution that, according to the Iranian Constitution, has the responsibility of selecting and dismissing the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, according to Tasnim News Agency, on Saturday, the third day of registration for the fifth term of the Assembly of Experts, the son of Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the Deputy Chairman and Head of the Secretariat of this Assembly, registered on his behalf. Mr. Hashemi Shahroudi is participating in the Assembly elections in the Mashhad constituency. Additionally, Ayatollah Ibrahim Amini, former Friday Prayer Imam of Qom and representative of the Assembly of Experts from Tehran, also registered to participate again in this Assembly. By the end of Saturday, figures such as Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Alavi, Minister of Intelligence, Mohammad Ali Taskhiri, Ahmad Khatami, temporary Friday Prayer Imam of Tehran and member of the Assembly of Experts, Ali Razini, former head of the Special Clerical Court, Mahmoud Amjad, ethics professor in Tehran, Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, temporary Friday Prayer Imam of Isfahan, and Ali Mohammad Dashtgheib, a religious authority in Shiraz, have registered to participate in this round of the Assembly of Experts. Mr. Dashtgheib is a supporter of reformists and protesters against the results of the 2009 presidential election. He has repeatedly called for the release of political prisoners and emphasized the need to end the house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and Zahra Rahnavard. Messrs. Mousavi and Karroubi are the leaders of the protesters against the results of the 2009 election, who, along with Zahra Rahnavard, have been under house arrest since February 2011. Ayatollah Dashtgheib also criticized the Guardian Council's supervisory oversight in September of this year, deeming its consequences as 'suffocation.' Meanwhile, according to the state-run news agency IRNA, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the Expediency Discernment Council and a representative of the Assembly of Experts, has also confirmed his candidacy for the Assembly elections. In this context, Mehr News reported that Mohammad Tajaldini has registered as the youngest candidate for the Kerman constituency of the Assembly of Experts. Born in 1988, he registered his name at the Ministry of Interior to participate in the Assembly elections. According to Hossein Ali Amiri, spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, the oldest candidate for the Assembly was born in 1923. In this context, more than 800 individuals registered on the first day of candidates' registration for the Assembly.