Parliamentary elections were 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 8 March 1996, with a second round on 19 April. The

Combatant Clergy Association The Combatant Clergy Association ( fa, جامعۀ روحانیت مبارز, jâmeʿe-ye rowhâniyat-e mobârez) is a politically active group in Iran, but not a political party in the traditional sense. It has never been registered as a politica ...

and its allies emerged as the largest bloc in the Majlis, winning 110 of the 270 seats.

Electoral system

The

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 entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

approved in a December 1979 referendum provided for a 270-seat Majlis, with five seats reserved for minority groups including

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, Zorastrians,

Armenians Armenians ( hy, հայեր, '' hayer'' ) are an ethnic group native to the Armenian highlands of Western Asia. Armenians constitute the main population of Armenia and the ''de facto'' independent Artsakh. There is a wide-ranging diasp ...

from the north and south of the country and one jointly elected by Assyrians and Chaldeans.Iran
IPU The elections were conducted using a

two-round system The two-round system (TRS), also known as runoff voting, second ballot, or ballotage, is a voting method used to elect a single candidate, where voters cast a single vote for their preferred candidate. It generally ensures a majoritarian resu ...

, with the number of candidates progressing to the second round being double the number of seats available. Candidates required an absolute majority to win a seat in the first round, and plurality to win in the second round. However, in this election, minimum percentages for candidates to be elected in first round was lowered to 33.33% (one-third of votes).

Campaign

A total of 3,726 candidates contested the elections, including around 326 women. 145 seats were won in the first round of voting.Elections held in 1996
IPU Main groups contesting in the elections were: *

and Islamic Aligned Organizations ('traditional' right-wing) * Executives of Construction Party ('modern' right-wing) *

Association for Defence of Revolution Values Association for Defence of Islamic Revolution Values ( fa, جمعیت دفاع از ارزش‌های انقلاب اسلامی; Jam`īyat-e Defā` az Arzeshhā-ye Enqelāb-e Eslāmī) was a neo- principlist political party in Iran, founded by Moha ...

('neocon' right-wing) * Association of Combatant Clerics ('traditional' left-wing) *

Coalition of Imam's Line groups Coalition of Imam's Line groups ( fa, ائتلاف گروه‌های خط امام, E'telāf-e Goruhhā-ye Khatt-e Emām) was an Iranian political alliance active in 1990s, consisting of Islamic radical leftist groups later emerging current reform ...

('radical' left-wing) 15 Freedom Movement members presented themselves as candidates and only 4 of them made it through initial vetting, 3 of whom were excluded before polling day. The organization announced its intention to withdraw from the election. The election was boycotted by the National Front and Nation Party.

Results

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani - Iranian legislative election, 1996

Both conservatives and reformers claimed a 70 percent majority after the first round and also claimed independents as supporters. ;''Salam'' newspaper According to '' Salam'', Executives of Construction and Imam's Line Groups won shared 120 parliamentary seats.Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Iran: The National Kargozaran-Sazandegi Party; political view, its leaders, branches, and participation in any election in Iran (1998), 19 February 2002, IRN38586.E, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/3df4be498.html ccessed 10 June 2016/ref> ;Adelkhah (1999) ; Nohlen ''et al'' (2001) :''In the following table, the Independents are counted as "allies"''. ; Kazemzadeh (2008)

Aftermath

The newly elected members of Majlis met for the first time on 1 June.

Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri ( fa, علی‌اکبر ناطق‌نوری; sometimes spelt Nategh-Nouri, born 6 October 1944) is an Iranian politician, who served as the Iranian parliament, Chairman of the Parliament of Iran from 1992 to 2000. He was al ...

remained in Speaker position until 2000 after he received 11 more votes than

Abdullah Nouri 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 ...

(also a cleric).

References

{{Iranian elections 1996 elections in Iran March 1996 events in Asia April 1996 events in Asia Islamic Consultative Assembly elections