1943–1944 Iranian Legislative Election

The elections for the 14th Parliament of Iran was held in November 1943–February 1944 and more than 800 candidates ran for 136 seats.

Ervand Abrahamian wrote in 1982 that the elections were "the most prolonged, most competitive and most meaningful of all elections in modern Iran".

Timeline

Tehran

* 24 November 1943: Start of the election
* 27 November 1943: End of the election
* 30 December 1943: Beginning of reading of votes
* 10 February 1944: Declaration of 11 Members-elect of parliament from Tehran. The twelfth was postponed.

Results

The Tudeh Party put forward fifteen candidates, nine of whom won seats. The number of the total votes cast for the candidates of the party is estimated at 1.5 million, one-eight of the total votes cast.

Out of the 41,000 total votes cast in Tehran, Mohammad Mossadegh finished first with some 15,000 votes.: The "official" slate was, in fact, elected: Taghi Fadakar finished first with 30,499 votes (twice the number of votes cast for Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, the top candidate in the Tehran elections), Hesameddin Dowlatabadi was second with 29,740 votes and Heidar-Ali Emami third with 28,730. All Tudeh Party candidates were defeated in the constituency.: The total number of the votes cast for Tudeh candidates was estimated to be one-eight of the total votes cast, estimated at 1,500,000... In all, nine of the party's fifteen candidates were elected, although none were elected for the twelve seats for Tehran. Of the Central Council and Tudeh Party leaders who stood for election in Tehran, Dr. Morteza Yazdi received 4,719 votes, Ebrahim Mahzari 2,831, and Hossein Jahani 2,796 out of the 41,000 total votes cast.

In Isfahan, official results showed that Taghi Fadakar became the first deputy with 30,499 votes, and Hessameddin Dowlatabadi and Heidar-Ali Emami were elected for the second and third seats with 29,740 and 28,730 votes respectively.

The top two seats for Tabriz went to Kho'i and Pishevari (Soviet-supported) with 15,883 and 15,780 votes out of 47,780 respectively, but credentials of both were rejected later. The rest of the seven seats in the constituency went to Eskandari, Sadeqi, Seqat ol-Eslam, Ipakchiyan (Soviet-supported), Panahi, Mojtahedi and Sartippur.

Composition

According to Ervand Abrahamian, a summarized composition of the parliament that was shaped after at the election is as follows:

Based on the lines mentioned above for each parliamentary group, the absolute majority of members of parliament were against the royal family and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi:

A characterization of members of parliament based on the foreign policy outlook of their respective parliamentary groups:

A characterization of members of the parliament on political spectrum could be as follows:

References

Footnotes

Sources

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{{DEFAULTSORT:1943-1944 Iranian legislative election
1944
1944 elections in Asia
1944 in Iran
14th term of the Iranian Majlis
Mohammad Mosaddegh