Katana VentraIP

1989 Iranian constitutional referendum

A constitutional referendum was held in Iran on 28 July 1989, alongside presidential elections. Approved by 97.6% of voters,[1] it was the first and so far only time the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran 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 (rahbar) of the country to be a marja or chosen by popular acclaim,[2] it eliminated the post of prime minister, and it created a Supreme National Security Council.

changing the name of the Majlis-e Melli to the -e Islami.

Majlis

increasing the size of the to 86 members

Assembly of Experts

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 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.

Expediency Council

On 24 April 1989 while on his deathbed, Ayatollah Khomeini appointed a 25-man "Council for the Revision of the Constitution" (Persian: شورای بازنگری قانون اساسی, romanizedŠurā-ye bāznegari-e qānun-e asāsi). The council named Ali Khamenei as Khomeini's successor as Supreme Leader of Iran and drew up several amendments to the original constitution. Since the senior mujtahid or Marja of Iran had given only lukewarm support to Khomeini's principle of rule by Islamic jurist, 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.[3]


Some changes to the constitution introduced by the Reform Council include:


The amendments were allegedly approved by Iranian voters and became law on 28 July 1989.[4]

Abbas Ali Amid-Zanjani

Ebrahim Amini

Ahmad Azari Qomi

Asadollah Bayat

Mohammad Emami-Kashani

Hassan Habibi

Najafgholi Habibi

Hossein Hashemian

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani

Ahmad Jannati

Mehdi Karroubi

(deputy chairman)

Ali Khamenei

Hadi Khamenei

Abolghasem Khazali

Mohammad Reza Mahdavi-Kani

(chairman)

Ali Meshkini

Mohammad Mohammadi Gilani

Mohammad Daneshzadeh Mo'men

Mir-Hossein Mousavi

Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili

Mohammad Mousavi-Khoiniha

Abdollah Noori

Hassan Taheri-Khorramabadi

Mohammad Reza Tavassoli

Mohammad Yazdi

This is a list of members of Constitutional Amendment Council of Iran, appointed by Ayatollah Khomeini, who reviewed and amended the Constitution of Iran in 1989: