Hardline cleric elected head of key Iran oversight body

TEHRAN — Iran’s Assembly of Experts chose ultra-conservative 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, with media reports suggesting he could muster no more than 20 of the assembly’s votes.

Two other conservatives, Tehran prayer leader Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini, a moderate with reformist support, and former judiciary chief Mahmoud Hashemi Sharhoudi won 21 and 13 votes, respectively.

Despite the advances for reformists in February’s election, the assembly remains controlled by conservatives.

In Tehran, Rafsanjani won and moderate President Hassan Rouhani came third, but in the provinces conservatives kept their seats.

Prominent hardliners lost their seats, however, including outgoing chairman Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi and Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, a close adviser to ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is 76 and should he die, the assembly will have the task of electing his successor.

The supreme leader has the final say on all matters of state in Iran, and has far more power than the president.