A constitutional referendum was held in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

on 28 July 1989, alongside

presidential elections A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The ...

. Approved by 97.6% of voters, it was the first and so far only time the

Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (, ''Qanun-e Asasi-ye Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Iran'') is the supreme law of Iran. It was adopted by referendum on 2 and 3 December 1979, and went into force replacing the Constitution of 1906. It ...

has been amended. It made several changes to articles 5, 107, 109, 111, and added article 176. It eliminated the need for the

Supreme Leader A supreme leader or supreme ruler typically refers to powerful figures with an unchallenged authority, such as autocrats, dictators to spiritual and revolutionary leaders. Historic examples are Adolf Hitler () of Nazi Germany, Francisco ...

(''rahbar'') of the country to be a '' marja'' or chosen by popular acclaim, it eliminated the post of

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, and it created a Supreme National Security Council.

Background

On 24 April 1989 while on his deathbed,

Ayatollah Khomeini Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (17 May 1900 or 24 September 19023 June 1989) was an Iranian revolutionary, politician, political theorist, and religious leader. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian ...

appointed a 25-man "Council for the Revision of the Constitution" (). The council named

Ali Khamenei Ali Hosseini Khamenei (; born 19 April 1939) is an Iranian cleric and politician who has served as the second supreme leader of Iran since 1989. He previously served as the third President of Iran, president from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei's tenure ...

as Khomeini's successor as

Supreme Leader of Iran The supreme leader of Iran, also referred to as the supreme leader of the Islamic Revolution, but officially called the supreme leadership authority, is the head of state and the highest political and religious authority of Iran (above the Presi ...

and drew up several amendments to the original

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

. Since the senior

mujtahid ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ' , ) is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a legal question. It is contrasted with '' taqlid'' (i ...

or Marja of Iran had given only lukewarm support to Khomeini's principle of the

Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist The Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist (, also ''Velayat-e Faghih''; ) is a concept in Twelver Shia Islamic law which holds that until the reappearance of the "infallible Imam" (sometime before Judgement Day), the religious and social affairs ...

, and Khamenei was not a marja, the original prerequisite that the rahbar (leader) be "a paramount faqih" (i.e. one of these marja) was dropped from the constitution. Some changes to the constitution introduced by the Reform Council include: *changing the name of the Majlis-e Melli to the

Majlis (, pl. ') is an Arabic term meaning 'sitting room', used to describe various types of special gatherings among common interest groups of administrative, social or religious nature in countries with linguistic or cultural connections to the Mus ...

-e Islami. *increasing the size of the

Assembly of Experts The Assembly of Experts (), also translated as the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership or as the Council of Experts, is the deliberative body empowered to appoint the Supreme Leader of Iran. All directly elected members must first be vetted ...

to 86 members *giving the Assembly of Experts the authority to convene at least once a year and to determine whether the Supreme Leader was ‘mentally and physically capable of carrying out his arduous duties.’ *transforming the Expediency Council into a permanent body with members appointed by the Supreme Leader as well as representatives from the three branches of government, the armed forces, the intelligence service, and the Guardian Council. The amendments were allegedly approved by Iranian voters and became law on 28 July 1989.Iran – Constitution
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Members of the council

This is a list of members of Constitutional Amendment Council of Iran, appointed by

, who reviewed and amended the Constitution of Iran in 1989:

Results

References

{{Iranian elections Referendums in Iran Referendum, constitutional

Referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

Constitutional referendums Constitutional amendments Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran