A constitutional referendum was held in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

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 pr ...

. Allegedly 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 ( fa, قانون اساسی جمهوری اسلامی ایران, ''Qanun-e Asasi-ye Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Iran'') was December 1979 Iranian constitutional referendum, adopted by referendum on 2 ...

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, it eliminated the post of

prime minister A prime minister, premier 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. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

, and it created a

Supreme National Security Council Supreme National Security Council (SNSC; fa, شورای عالی امنیت ملی ''Showrāye Āliye Amniyate Mellī'' also ''Supreme Council for National Security'') is the national security council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the current ...

Background

On 24 April 1989 while on his deathbed,

Ayatollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

appointed a 25-man "Council for the Revision of the Constitution" ( fa, شورای بازنگری قانون اساسی, Šurā-ye bāznegari-e qānun-e asāsi). The council named

Ali Khamenei Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنه‌ای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...

as Khomeini's successor as

Supreme Leader of Iran The Supreme Leader of Iran ( fa, رهبر ایران, rahbar-e irān) is the List of heads of state of Iran, head of state of the Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran. The Supreme Leader directs the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, executiv ...

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, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

. Since the senior

mujtahid ''Ijtihad'' ( ; ar, اجتهاد ', ; lit. physical or mental ''effort'') 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 le ...

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. Some changes to the constitution introduced by the Reform Council include: *changing the name of the Majlis-e Melli to the

Majlis ( ar, المجلس, 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 conne ...

-e Islami. *increasing the size of the

Assembly of Experts The Assembly of Experts ( fa, مجلس خبرگان رهبری, majles-e khobregân-e rahbari), 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 ...

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 The Expediency Discernment Council of the System ( fa, مجمع تشخیص مصلحت نظام ''Majma'-e Taškhīs-e Maslahat-e Nezām'') is an administrative assembly appointed by the Supreme Leader and was created upon the revision to the Co ...

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 The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran ( fa, قانون اساسی جمهوری اسلامی ایران, ''Qanun-e Asasi-ye Jomhuri-ye Eslâmi-ye Iran'') was adopted by referendum on 2 and 3 December 1979, and went into force replac ...

in 1989: *

Abbas Ali Amid-Zanjani Abbas-Ali Amid Zanjani (30 March 1937 – 30 October 2011) was an Iranian politician and cleric. He was the only cleric president of University of Tehran, who himself had had no academic education of any kind, that served from 2005 to 2008. Ear ...

Ebrahim Amini Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini (30 June 1925 – 24 April 2020) was an Iranian conservative politician who was a member of the Assembly of Experts. He was also a member of the Expediency Discernment Council, and was previously identified as a possible ...

Ahmad Azari Qomi Grand Ayatollah Ahmad Azari-Qomi-Bigdeli was an Iranian cleric. Born in 1925 in Qom, after the 1979 Iranian Revolution he served on the Special Clerical Court, and Assembly of Experts, founded the conservative Resalat Newspaper. He was arrested ...

Asadollah Bayat Grand Ayatollah Asadollah Bayat-Zanjani ( fa, اسدالله بیات زنجانی) is an Iranian theologian, Islamic philosopher, writer and Grand marja of Islam. He published his objection to the velayat-e faqih (religious system in Iran) and ...

Mohammad Emami-Kashani Mohammad Emami-Kashani ( fa, محمد امامی کاشانی) is a member of the Assembly of Experts of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He has been the Interim Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran. He is also the head of Shahid Motahari University, ...

Hassan Habibi Hassan Ebrahim Habibi ( fa, حسن حبیبی; 29 January 1937 – 31 January 2013) was an Iranian politician, lawyer, scholar and the first first vice president from 1989 until 2001 under Presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatam ...

* Najafgholi Habibi * Hossein Hashemian *

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ( fa, اکبر هاشمی رفسنجانی, Akbar Hāshemī Rafsanjānī, born Akbar Hashemi Bahramani, 25 August 1934 – 8 January 2017) was an Iranian politician, writer, and one of the founding fathers of the Islami ...

Ahmad Jannati Ahmad Jannati ( fa, احمد جنتی, born 23 February 1927) is an Iranian conservative politician. He was born in Ladan, Isfahan. Jannati is known for his anti-LGBT rhetoric and opposition to secularism. He is also a founding member of the Ha ...

Mehdi Karroubi Mehdi Karroubi ( fa, مهدی کروبی, Mehdi Karrubi, born 26 September 1937) is an Iranian Shia cleric and Iranian reform movement, reformist politician leading the National Trust Party (Iran), National Trust Party. Following 2009–2010 Iran ...

(deputy chairman) *

Hadi Khamenei Sayyid Hadi Khamenei ( fa, سید هادی خامنه‌ای; born 26 January 1948) is an Iranian reformist politician, mujtahid and linguist.(14 February 1999Reformist Kin of Iran Leader is Attacked by Militants''The New York Times'' He is a key ...

* Abolghasem Khazali *

Mohammad Reza Mahdavi-Kani Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani ( fa, محمدرضا مهدوی کنی, 6 August 1931 – 21 October 2014) was an Iranian Shia cleric, writer and conservative and principlist politician who was Acting Prime Minister of Iran from 2 Septemb ...

Ali Meshkini Ali Akbar Feiz Aleni ( fa, علی‌اکبر فیض آلنی; 2 December 1921 – 30 July 2007), better known as Ali Meshkini, was an Iranian cleric and politician. Life Meshkini was an Iranian Azerbaijani born in a village near Meshkin Shahr ...

(chairman) *

Mohammad Mohammadi Gilani Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Gilani ( fa, محمد محمدی گیلانی) (31 August 1928 – 9 July 2014) was a member of the Assembly of Experts of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was the chief justice of the supreme court of Iran, a posi ...

* Mohammad Daneshzadeh Mo'men *

Mir-Hossein Mousavi Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh ( fa, میرحسین موسوی خامنه, Mīr-Hoseyn Mūsavī Khāmené, ; born 2 March 1942) is an Iranian reformist politician, artist and architect who served as the forty-ninth and last Prime Minister of Ira ...

* Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili * Mohammad Mousavi-Khoiniha *

Abdollah Noori Abdollah Noori ( fa, عبدالله نوری ) is an Iranian cleric and reformist politician. Despite his "long history of service to the Islamic Republic," he became the most senior Islamic politician to be sentenced to prison since the Iranian ...

* Hassan Taheri-Khorramabadi * Mohammad Reza Tavassoli *

Mohammad Yazdi Mohammad Yazdi ( fa, محمد یزدی, 2 July 1931 – 9 December 2020) was an Iranian conservative and principlist cleric who served as the head of Judiciary System of Iran between 1989 and 1999. In 2015, he was elected to lead Iran's Assembl ...

Results

References

{{Iranian elections Referendums in Iran Referendum, constitutional

Referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

Constitutional referendums Constitutional amendments Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran