April 19, 2019
The next Majlis elections have been scheduled for Friday, February 21, 2020, the Interior Ministry has announced.
All 290 seats in the Majlis will be on the ballot. The term for Majlis deputies is four years.
The ministry said elections will also be held to fill vacancies in the 88-member Assembly of Experts, the body that elects the Supreme Leader when his post falls vacant. The announcement didn’t say how many Assembly seats are currently vacant. The term for Assembly members is eight years.
The Majlis, meanwhile, has approved term limits that will bar anyone from serving more than three consecutive terms in the Majlis or 12 years.
A deputy could then sit out one term and run again after a break of four years.
Iran Front Page reported that the new law means 34 current deputies or 12 percent of the membership will not be able to run next year. They include Speaker Ali Larijani, Deputy Speaker Ali Motahari and the former chairman of the National Security Committee Alaeddin Borujerdi.
The Financial Tribune reported that the Majlis is also considering a proposal to elect all deputies province-wide, rather than from individual districts. Deputy Asghar Salimi said the goal was to seat deputies who would have a broader perspective and not be swallowed up by small-town issues.
Cities now elect all their deputies citywide, meaning that in the huge Tehran area each voter gets to vote for 30 deputies. In many rural areas there is just one deputy for a pocket of small towns and villages. Many of these members are elected because they come from a prominent local family and they are often far removed from national issues.