Assembly of Experts - Functions

Functions

See also: List of speakers of Assembly of Experts of Iran

According to the Iranian Constitution, the assembly is in charge of supervising, dismissing and electing the Supreme Leader. In the event of his death, resignation or dismissal, the Experts shall take steps within the shortest possible time to appoint a new Leader. "Whenever the Leader becomes incapable of fulfilling his constitutional duties, or loses one of the qualifications mentioned in the Constitution, or it becomes known that he did not possess some of the qualifications initially, he will be dismissed." The assembly has never dismissed a sitting Supreme Leader, and as all of their meetings and notes are strictly confidential, the assembly has never been known to challenge or otherwise publicly oversee any of the Supreme Leader's decisions.

The Experts are to review and consult among themselves concerning Islamic jurists possessing the qualifications of leadership. Constitutionally these criteria include "Islamic scholarship, justice, piety, right political and social perspicacity, prudence, courage, administrative facilities and adequate capability for leadership." In the event they find one of the jurists better versed in Islamic regulations, the subjects of the Fiqh, or in political and social issues, or possessing general popularity or special prominence for any of the qualifications of leadership, they shall elect him as Supreme Leader. Otherwise, in the absence of such a candidate, the Experts shall elect and declare one of themselves as Supreme Leader.

According to Chibli Mallat, a Lebanese lawyer and intellectual, the basis of assembly's election and work is derived from the Shia tradition whereby the shia rank and file, the muqallid, "chose their marja and then the pre-eminent marja emerged by consent among senior clerics."

The assembly gathers every six months. Activities of the assembly include compiling a list of those eligible to become leader in the event of the current leader's death, resignation, or dismissal. This is done by the 107/109 commission. Monitoring the current leader to make sure he continues to meet all the criteria listed in the constitution is done by the 111 commission. Members of assembly report to this commission about the issues concerning the current leader, and the commission can then order an emergency meeting of the assembly. If the commission denies this, the members can ask the general assembly for a vote, and if most of the members of assembly decide, there will be an emergency meeting of the assembly for discussing the current leader. The meetings, meeting notes, and reports of the assembly are confidential and not made available to anyone outside the assembly, except for the sitting Supreme Leader.

The constitution does not specify requirements for members of the assembly, leaving the assembly itself to put limits on who may be a candidate. The assembly has passed laws to require all its members be experts in Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), authorizing the Guardian Council to vet candidates for ijtihad proficiency using written and oral examinations. This law is being challenged by the reformists, and their 2006 election campaign included changing this law to allow non-clerics into the assembly, and reforming the law that allows Guardian Council to vet candidates.

Currently, the average age of its members is over 60 years, which results in many mid-term elections.

Read more about this topic:  Assembly Of Experts

Famous quotes containing the word functions:

    “Let us stop being afraid. Of our own thoughts, our own minds. Of madness, our own or others’. Stop being afraid of the mind itself, its astonishing functions and fandangos, its complications and simplifications, the wonderful operation of its machinery—more wonderful because it is not machinery at all or predictable.”
    —Kate Millett (b. 1934)

    “Those things which now most engage the attention of men, as politics and the daily routine, are, it is true, vital functions of human society, but should be unconsciously performed, like the corresponding functions of the physical body.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “If photography is allowed to stand in for art in some of its functions it will soon supplant or corrupt it completely thanks to the natural support it will find in the stupidity of the multitude. It must return to its real task, which is to be the servant of the sciences and the arts, but the very humble servant, like printing and shorthand which have neither created nor supplanted literature.”
    —Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)