Hardliner elected head of key Iran oversight body

AFP, TEHRAN: Iran’s Assembly of Experts chose ultraconservative Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati on Tuesday to head the key body which oversees the work of the country’s supreme leader and will elect his successor, state television reported.
The 89-year-old cleric is one of the few hardliners who secured reelection in a February vote that saw a landslide for reformist and moderates in the capital and big gains elsewhere.
Jannati was voted chairman of the 88-member Assembly with 51 votes.
No moderates or reformists stood for the post.
Former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who had chaired the assembly until 2011 and who topped the polls in Tehran three months ago, did not put his name forward.
Media reports suggested he could muster no more than 20 of the assembly’s votes.

 

Hardliner elected head of key Iran oversight body

AFP, TEHRAN: Irans Assembly of Experts chose ultraconservative Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati on Tuesday to head the key body which oversees the work of the countrys supreme leader and will elect his successor, state television reported. The 89-year-old cleric is one of the few hardliners who secured reelection in a February vote that saw a landslide for reformist and moderates in the capital and big gains elsewhere. Jannati was voted chairman of the 88-member Assembly with 51 votes. No moderates or reformists stood for the post. Former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who had chaired the assembly until 2011 and who topped the polls in Tehran three months ago, did not put his name forward. Media reports suggested he could muster no more than 20 of the assemblys votes.