Iran: What to Expect from Qalibaf and ‘his’ Parliament

Parliamentary elections in Iran do not usually receive significant international attention, despite the importance of the institution that runs the legislative process. This year, the global spread of the COVID pandemic has, even more, overshadowed the result of the eleventh parliamentary elections in Iran, despite the fact that it sheds significant light on the future direction of Iranian domestic politics. The Iranian Majles is one of the most important elected bodies of the Nezam (literally meaning “the system”), and the composition of its membership reflects the inner factionalism that is characteristic of the Islamic Republic’s contemporary politics. Although the legislative and executive powers do not necessarily follow the same political direction, the membership of the Majles can tell us a lot about the possible transformation of the Iranian political context, due to the temporal mismatch of the two election periods. It is not a coincidence that in 2004 the conservative-led parliament previewed the ascendance of hardliner President Ahmadinejad a year later, even though antagonism between the executive branch and the legislature surfaced very soon. This explains how, to some extent, the composition of the Majles and its interaction with the other constitutional bodies hints at the dialectic of power within the Islamic Republic.