{"id":112771,"date":"2026-03-03T13:55:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T18:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/?p=112771"},"modified":"2026-03-03T13:55:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T18:55:51","slug":"iran-to-elect-next-supreme-leader-by-vote-through-assembly-of-experts-after-khameneis-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/iran-to-elect-next-supreme-leader-by-vote-through-assembly-of-experts-after-khameneis-death\/112771\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran to elect next Supreme Leader by vote through Assembly of Experts after Khamenei\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Iran has made a constitutional move toward selecting its next Supreme Leader following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in late February. Under the country\u2019s system, the new leader must be chosen by a vote inside a powerful clerical body known as the Assembly of Experts,\u00a0a group of 88 senior Shiite clerics who are directly elected by the public but vetted by the state\u2019s religious authorities.<\/p>\n

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Assembly of Experts in Iran to vote on next Supreme Leader under Iranian law after Khamenei\u2019s death<\/h2>\n

Iran\u2019s constitution clearly lays out how succession works when the post of Supreme Leader becomes vacant. A temporary three-person leadership council now fills the role of the supreme leader until a permanent successor is chosen. The council includes the president, the head of the judiciary, and a senior cleric chosen from the Guardian Council, and it serves only until the next leader is elected.<\/p>\n

The responsibility to select the next Supreme Leader belongs to the Assembly of Experts, an elected body of senior clerics whose members are chosen by voters every eight years, though candidates are vetted before elections. That assembly must convene and cast a majority vote to appoint a new supreme leader, fulfilling one of Iran\u2019s most important constitutional processes.<\/p>\n

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How the voting process in Iran will likely unfold<\/h2>\n

The Assembly of Experts\u2019 next step is to deliberate and vote to fill the vacancy created by Khamenei\u2019s death. According to Iranian officials and foreign ministry statements, the transition process has begun and may be completed \u201cwithin days,\u201d though exact timing remains uncertain.<\/p>\n

Key factors influencing the vote include the current makeup of the Assembly, which was elected in 2024 and dominated by conservative clerics, and the vetting role of the Guardian Council, which has a history of disqualifying candidates it finds insufficiently loyal to the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

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What election by vote actually means in Iran\u2019s system<\/h2>\n

Although the Assembly of Experts is elected by the public, actual candidate selection and oversight are tightly controlled by the Guardian Council, meaning the vote is not a fully open popular election in the democratic sense. Candidates for the Assembly itself must be approved by religious and political authorities, and only those clerics can participate in choosing the next supreme leader.<\/p>\n

Still, the process represents the formal constitutional mechanism Iran uses to select its highest authority and is now underway after decades under Khamenei\u2019s leadership. As events unfold, the Assembly\u2019s vote will determine who assumes ultimate control over Iran\u2019s political and religious hierarchy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iran has made a constitutional move toward selecting its next Supreme Leader following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":112772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[535,35611,6167,35537,13193,33979,750],"class_list":["post-112771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-iran","tag-iranian-law","tag-khamenei","tag-netanyau","tag-tehran","tag-top-stories","tag-trump"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112773,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112771\/revisions\/112773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}