A referendum on creating an Islamic Republic 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 30 and 31 March 1979. Political parties such as the National Democratic Front and the

Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas The Organization of Iranian People's Fedai Guerrillas (OIPFG; ), simply known as Fadaiyan-e-Khalq () was an underground Marxist–Leninist guerrilla organization in Iran. The OIPFG was one of the most important and influential armed groups dur ...

boycotted the referendum. The

People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), also known as Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) or Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) (), is an Iranian dissident organization. It was an armed group until 2003, afterwards transitioning into a politica ...

, the

Tudeh Party of Iran The Tudeh Party of Iran is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in its early years and played an important role during Mohammad Mosaddegh's campaign to nationalize ...

, the Freedom Movement of Iran, the National Front, and the Islamic People's Republican Party, also "objected to the imposition of Khomeini's choice". According to official results, it was approved by 98.2% of eligible citizens. However, votes were color-coded and voting booths were lacking, explaining the unusually high approval rate. In order to include the Iranian youth who participated in the revolution, the

voting age A legal voting age is the minimum age that a person is allowed to Voting, vote in a democracy, democratic process. For General election, general elections around the world, the right to vote is restricted to adults, and most nations use 18 year ...

was lowered from 18 to 16. Following this, the 1906 constitution was declared invalid and a new constitution for an Islamic state was created and ratified by another referendum in December 1979.

Party policies

Voting

Voters were given a three-part ballot, two of which containing the following statement: The

Interim Government of Iran The Interim Government of Iran () was the first government established in Iran after the Iranian Revolution. The regime was headed by Mehdi Bazargan, one of the members of the Freedom Movement of Iran, and formed on the order of Ayatollah Kh ...

invited a four-man delegation of international jurists from

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the voting. According to ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', polling places lacked voting booths and the color-coded ballots could clearly be seen by observers, quoting head of the delegation "this is not the way we do things in the West, and it does not meet our criteria of democracy". Sadegh Zibakalam describes the referendum as "free and fair".

Michael Axworthy Michael George Andrew Axworthy (26 September 1962 – 16 March 2019) was a British academic, author, and commentator. He was the head of the Iran section at the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office between 1998 and 2000. Personal life and fami ...

states "there may have been some irregularities in the referendum, but most balanced observers then and since have accepted that whatever the conditions, a referendum at that time with that question would always have given a massive majority for the same result", that is the end of the monarchy. A huge voter turnout was reported nationwide, except for Turkmen Sahra and

Iranian Kurdistan Iranian Kurdistan or Eastern Kurdistan () is an unofficial name for the parts of northwestern Iran with either a majority or sizable population of Kurds. Geographically, it includes the West Azerbaijan province, Kurdistan province, Kermanshah pr ...

, where the referendum was not held in full due to ongoing armed conflicts.

Results

Results by province

References

External links

"Sadeq Tabatabaei shows voters how to cast their ballot in Islamic Republic referendum"
(YouTube Video) {{Ruhollah Khomeini 1979 03 History of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Aftermath of the Iranian Revolution Monarchy referendums