Ali Larijani Re-Elected as Iran’s Parliament Speaker

Larijani won 155 votes out of 247 votes cast during Sunday’s parliamentary session, obtaining the speakership of the Iranian parliament.

Iranian lawmakers elected Larijani during an open session as the next parliament speaker for the fourth year of the 10th parliament, ICANA reported.

In a subsequent vote, one of his rivals, Mohammad Reza Aref did not garner more than 105 votes. Mohammad Javad Abtahi, another candidate, gained only 9 votes.

Reformist lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian was also re-elected as the first vice-speaker of the Parliament, but the second vice-speaker, Ali Motahari, also a reformist, failed to win enough votes, and will be replaced by Abdolreza Mesri, a conservative lawmaker who served as the Labour Minister during President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s first term in office (2005-2009).

Ali Larijani is a moderate conservative politician who served as the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 15 August 2005 to 20 October 2007. In his post, he effectively functioned as the top negotiator on issues of national security, including Iran’s nuclear program.

As per an internal guideline of Iran’s parliament, the election of the speaker in the first round is with the absolute majority of the representatives’ votes. If the election does not reach the absolute majority in the first round, the relative majority will be sufficient in the second round.