The president of the Islamic Republic of Iran () is the
head of government
In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...
of the
Islamic Republic of Iran and the second highest-ranking official, after the
supreme leader. The
first election was held in 1980 and was won by
Abulhassan Banisadr.
Masoud Pezeshkian currently serves as the president of Iran, after being elected in the
2024 Iranian presidential election and being officially endorsed by
the supreme leader.
History
After the
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Impe ...
of 1979 and
1979 Iranian Islamic Republic referendum on March 29 and 30, the new government needed to craft a new constitution. Supreme Leader
Ruhollah Khomeini, ordered an election for the
Assembly of Experts, the body tasked with writing the constitution. The assembly presented the constitution on October 24, 1979, and Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini and Prime Minister
Mehdi Bazargan approved it.
The 1979 Constitution designated the
supreme leader of Iran as the head of state and the president and
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 ...
as the heads of government. The post of prime minister was abolished in 1989.
The
first Iranian presidential election was held on January 25, 1980, and resulted in the election of
Abulhassan Banisadr with 76% of the votes. Banisadr was impeached on June 22, 1981, by
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
. Until the
early election on July 24, 1981, the duties of the President were undertaken by the Provisional Presidential Council.
Mohammad-Ali Rajai was elected president on July 24, 1981, and took office on August 2. Rajai was in office for less than one month because he and his prime minister were both assassinated in
a bombing.
Once again a Provisional Presidential Council filled the office until October 13, 1981, when
Ali Khamenei was elected president.
The
election on August 3, 2005 resulted in a victory for
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on 28 October 1956) is an Iranian Iranian principlists, principlist and Iranian nationalism, nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a mem ...
. The
election on June 12, 2009 was reported by government authorities as a victory for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent candidate, although this is greatly disputed by supporters of rival candidates, who noted the statistical anomalies in voting reports and large-scale overvoting in the officially announced tallies.
Ali Khamenei,
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,
Mohammad Khatami,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on 28 October 1956) is an Iranian Iranian principlists, principlist and Iranian nationalism, nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a mem ...
and
Hassan Rouhani
Hassan Rouhani (; born Hassan Fereydoun, 12 November 1948) is an Iranian peoples, Iranian politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021. He is also a sharia lawyer ("Wakil"), academic, former diplomat and Islamic cl ...
were each elected president for two terms.
The most recent president of Iran was
Ebrahim Raisi. He succeeded
Hassan Rouhani
Hassan Rouhani (; born Hassan Fereydoun, 12 November 1948) is an Iranian peoples, Iranian politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021. He is also a sharia lawyer ("Wakil"), academic, former diplomat and Islamic cl ...
, who served eight years in office from 2013 to 2021. On May 19, 2024,
a helicopter carrying Raisi crashed in the East Azerbaijan Province of Iran. There were no survivors at the crash site. Raisi was the second president of Iran to have died in office.
Taghi Rahmani, the husband of detained activist and Nobel laureate
Narges Mohammadi, said Raisi's death would not structurally change the Iranian leadership under Khamenei.
Following his death, first vice president
Mohammad Mokhber was designated as acting president until new elections could be held on 28 June.
Office
The president is required to gain the supreme leader's official approval before being sworn in by the
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, and the supreme leader has the power to dismiss the elected president if he has either been impeached by Parliament or found guilty of a constitutional violation by the Supreme Court. The supreme leader holds all the power. The president answers to the supreme leader, who functions as the country's
head of state
A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...
, and executes his decrees.
[(see Article 110 of the constitution).] Unlike the executive in other countries, the president of Iran does not have full control over the government, which is ultimately under the direct control of the supreme leader.
Before
elections, nominees to become a presidential candidate must be approved by the
Guardian Council. Members of the Guardian Council are chosen by the supreme leader. The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term by
direct vote and is not permitted to run for more than two consecutive terms.
Chapter IX of the
Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran sets forth the qualifications for presidential candidates. The procedures for presidential election and all other elections in Iran are outlined by the supreme leader.
The president functions as the executive of the decrees and wishes of the supreme leader, including: signing
treaties with foreign countries and international organizations; and administering national planning, budget, and state employment affairs.
The president appoints the ministers, subject to the approval of Parliament and the supreme leader, who can dismiss or reinstate any of the ministers and
vice presidents at any time, regardless of the president or parliament's decision.
The supreme leader also directly chooses the ministers of defense, intelligence, foreign affairs, and interior, as well as certain other ministries, such as the Science Ministry. Iran's foreign policy is directly controlled by the
office of the supreme leader, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' role limited to protocol and ceremonial occasions. All of Iran's
ambassadors to Arab countries, for example, are chosen by the
Quds Corps, which reports directly to the supreme leader.
The current supreme leader
Ali Khamenei, ruling Iran for more than three decades, has issued decrees and made final decisions on
economy
An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...
,
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
, environment,
foreign policy
Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...
, national planning, and almost everything else in the country.
Khamenei has also made final decisions on the degree of transparency in
elections in Iran,
and has fired and reinstated
presidential cabinet appointments.
Qualifications and election
The procedures for presidential election and all other elections in Iran are outlined by the supreme leader.
The president of Iran is elected for a four-year term in a national
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...
by
universal adult suffrage by everyone of at least 18 years of age. Presidents can only be reelected once if in a consecutive manner. Candidates for the presidency must be approved by the
Council of Guardians, which is a twelve-member body consisting of six clerics selected directly by
Iran's supreme leader (who may also dismiss them and replace them at any time), and six lawyers proposed by the supreme leader–appointed
head of Iran's judicial system and subsequently approved by the
Majles.
According to the Constitution of Iran candidates for the presidency must possess the following qualifications:
*Iranian origin;
*administrative capacity and resourcefulness;
*a good past record;
*trustworthiness and piety; and
*convinced belief in the fundamental principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the official
madhhab
A ''madhhab'' (, , pl. , ) refers to any school of thought within fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence. The major Sunni Islam, Sunni ''madhhab'' are Hanafi school, Hanafi, Maliki school, Maliki, Shafi'i school, Shafi'i and Hanbali school, Hanbali.
They ...
of the country.
Within these guidelines the council
veto
A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...
es candidates who it deems unacceptable. The approval process is considered to be a check on the president's power, and usually amounts to a small number of candidates being approved. In
the 1997 election, for example, only four out of 238 presidential candidates were approved by the council. Some Western observers have routinely criticized the approvals process as a way for the council and supreme leader to ensure that only conservative and like-minded Islamic fundamentalists can win office. The council denies this, citing approval of
Iranian reformists in previous elections. The council rejects most of the candidates stating that they are not "a well-known political figure", a requirement by the current law.
The president must be elected with a
simple majority of the popular vote. If no candidate receives a majority in the first round, a
runoff election is held between the top two candidates.
The president automatically becomes the Head of the
Supreme National Security Council and the Head of the
Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution.
Legality of a woman to be candidate
The legality of women running for presidency depends upon the meaning of one of the criteria the candidate is required to fill. The 115th article of the Iranian constitution states that the president must be elected from among "religious and political ''men''" or "religious and political ''personalities''", depending on the interpretation (). In 1997, the Guardian Council used the first interpretation to reject the candidature of Azam Taleghani, the first woman to run for presidency. However, before the 2021 presidential election, the guardian council's spokesman said that legally there is no impediment for a woman to be president.
Inability
According to the article 131 of the
Iranian constitution, "In case of death, dismissal, resignation, absence, or illness lasting longer than two months of the President or when his term in office has ended and a new president has not been elected due to some impediments, or similar other circumstances, his
first deputy shall assume, with the approval of the
Leader, the powers and functions of the President. The Council, consisting of the
Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly,
Chief Justice, and the first deputy of the President, is obliged to arrange for a new President to be elected within a maximum period of fifty days. In case of death of the first deputy to the President, or other matters which prevent him to perform his duties or when the President does not have a first deputy, the Leader shall appoint another person in his place."
Powers and responsibilities

The president's duties include the following, subject to supervision, policy guidance and approval by the supreme leader:
*Second in command (after the supreme leader) of the
executive branch of
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...
and chairperson of the
cabinet
*The deputy
commander-in-chief of the
Islamic Republic of Iran Army
*Declares a
state of emergency
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state before, during, o ...
after passage by the parliament (The proclamation of martial law is forbidden.)
*Heads the
Supreme National Security Council
*Heads the
Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution
*Appoints the
first vice president of Iran and other vice presidents
*Nominates of
Cabinet members to the
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
*Sends and receives all foreign ambassadors
*Issues
decrees
*Issues
medals in honor of service for the nation
*Signs treaties, protocols, contracts, after parliamentary approval
*Signs referendum results and legislation approved by parliament and the judiciary
Latest election
See also
*
List of presidents of Iran
*
Advisor to the President of Iran
*
Aide to the President of Iran
*
Chief of Staff of the President of Iran
*
First Lady of Iran
References
External links
The President's OfficeIran Electoral Archive – President
{{Ministries of Iran
Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran
1980 establishments in Iran