The Iranian Electoral System

Hey folks,

in addition to my blog entry about ballot-rigging and if it can only occur in the Middle East, such as probably happened in Iran as I mentioned this example and as we are supposed to write something in addition to last session, I decided to write this entry about the Iranian electoral system and want to compare it to the American one. I hope that I can write in “Plain English” ;)

Firstly, the biggest difference in these two electoral system is the degree of the power of each president. Whereas Obama is regarded as the “most powerful man in the world”, the Iranian president Ahmadinedschad is only ranked second – behind the “non-elected theocracy”, in this case it is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. HE is the most powerful man in Iran and he has got the decisions to make, comparable to Obama: He calls the different ministers into office (e.g. foreign and defense minister) and he has got the control over the important and “trend-setting” decisions for the country of Iran. This man is not elected as the president, as mentioned above, but in his case, it is an appointment for life.
The president´s power in contrast is restricted. He is Head of Government and elected for four years. He has to make proposals for the candidates of the ministries and these proposals have to be accepted by parliament. Ahmadinedschad was finally elected and he fulfilled the conditions to become president: He is Muslim and between 25 and 75 years old. Women actually are allowed to run for president by law, but their candidacy has never been accepted by the “ruling clerics” so that they had to give their business up.
Now the question is: Who is allowed to vote? That is pretty simple and comparable tour German and American electoral system. Everyone being at least 18 years old. All in all this makes a sum of over 46 million eligible Iranian voters. It is important that all Iranian people are allowed to vote who fulfill these conditions – also those living abroad: another similarity.
The last important fact is that the president is elected directly by the population and he only needs a simple majority (>50%), not a majority of two thirds or something. Here the electoral system is some kind of, I do not want to say “primitive”, but very simple. I think, we like our electoral system better, because we are just used to it – but if you have a closer look at the Iranian one, one has to say that it does not sound that bad actually, if you can directly vote for the president! But then, there is of course the danger of ballot-rigging (see my entry about that down below ;) )!

I hope I did not get the Iranian electoral system wrong! Please feel free to comment on any mistakes!