Law for the Amendment of the Presidential Election Law
The Ministry of the Interior declares the promulgation of the Law for the Amendment of the Presidential Election Law, which was passed in the public session of Tuesday, 26 Dey, 1391 [January 15, 2013] of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and upheld on 4/11/1391 [January 23, 2013] by the Guardian Council and received by the Islamic Consultative Assembly through letter number 68390/152 dated 14/11/1391 [February 2, 2013].
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Law for the Amendment of the Presidential Election Law
Article 1: Article 3 of the Presidential Election Law passed on 5/4/1364 [June 26, 1985] and its later amendments and appendices thereto are as follows:
Note that the above numbers relate to the manner in which it is to be published in the nation’s newspapers.
Article 3 [sic]: The Ministry of the Interior, in addition to Article 131 of the Constitution, is obliged to present the bases for the implementation of the elections at least five months before the end of the fourth year of the presidency and in accordance with Article 119 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to inform the public of the rules for holding the elections and the day to begin registration for the candidates for the presidency through the mass media.
Article 2: In Article 19 of the law and the Note therein, after the word “identification” the expression “and national card” is to be added.
Article 3: Article 22 of the law is to be amended as follows:
Article 22: The elections for the presidency and for the urban and rural Islamic councils are to be held simultaneously, and the Ministry of the Interior is also obliged to take the necessary measures for the council elections. Should these elections be held simultaneously with yet other elections, registration and taking votes in each branch shall be supervised by the members of the unit, and separate ballot boxes shall be used for each election.
Note: Should the presidential term end in less than four years for reasons mentioned in Article 131 of the Constitution, in order for the elections to the urban and rural Islamic councils to be held simultaneously with the presidential elections, the Majlis shall decide on shortening or extending the Islamic councils’ terms within the framework of the Constitution.
Article 4: Article 31 of the law shall be amended as follows, and Article 18 shall be removed:
Article 31: The Ministry of the Interior shall run the presidential elections, and this shall be done under the supervision of the Central Electoral Executive Board, composed as follows:
1) The Minister of the Interior shall be the president.
2) A member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly Presidential Board, chosen by the Majlis, in a non-voting capacity.
3) The National Prosecutor General.
4) The Minister of Intelligence.
5) Seven religious, political, cultural, and social figures as trustees of the people, in accordance with the rules in Notes 1 and 2 of this article.
Note 1: At least five months before the four year presidential term ends, the Minister of the Interior shall introduce thirty religious, political, cultural, and social personalities of the country who have qualifications as included in Note 3 of Article 39 of this law as a trustees to the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections and convene a meeting in accordance with Note 2 of this article after receiving the approval of this board in at most one week, in the presence of at least two thirds of the aforementioned trustees, in which the seven trustees mentioned in Part 5 shall be elected as primary members and four as alternate members through secret ballot and by a majority of the voters.
Note 2: Should the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections not approve all or some of the candidate trustees for any reason, the Minister of the Interior is obliged to propose twice the required number of other qualified people to the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections. The board shall announce its decision in writing within twenty-four hours. In any case, the board’s view must be followed by the Minister of the Interior.
Note 3: None of the members of the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections may be candidates for the presidency.
Note 4: The first session shall be convened at the invitation of the Minister of the Interior and the Secretary of the National Elections Staff at the recommendation of the Minister of the Interior, approved by the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections. The Secretary of the National Elections Staff has the secretarial duties of the Secretary of the National Elections Staff.
Note 5: The Vice President of the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections shall be elected from among the board members.
Note 6: The decisions of the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections must not lead to interference into the Guardian Council’s supervisory rights and obligations in connection with the presidential elections. Otherwise, the aforementioned decisions shall be void and any measure to implement them shall be prohibited. The Guardian Council shall have the authority to decide on this matter.
Note 7: Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections meetings shall have a quorum of nine people. Its decisions shall be implementable in accordance with Note 6 of this article if they are passed by a vote of at least seven members.
Note 8: The result of counting the votes of presidential elections shall be announced by the Minister of the Interior after the receipt of the report by the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections. The Guardian Council is to issue its final confirmation of legitimacy.
Note 9: The Ministry of the Interior may, after informing the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections, dispatch to the provinces, departments, or branches fixed or mobile officers to inspect and control the course of the elections in registration and receiving votes.
Article 5: Article 33 of the law shall be amended as follows:
a) In Article 11, after the expression “receiving votes,” the expression “including both implementers and supervisors” shall be added.
b) The Note to Article 33 of the law shall be referred to as Note 1 in the amended version and another note as described below shall be added to it as Note 2:
Note 2: Should information of the committing of any of the above crimes arise, the Implementation and Supervision Boards are obliged to declare it to the appropriate legal authority for investigation. The event must be immediately be investigated by the prosecutor in the appropriate center.
Article 6: Article 34 of the law shall be amended as follows:
Article 34: The judiciary shall single out one of the branches in each center of the judiciary for extraordinary investigations into electoral violations and crimes.
Note 1: Should violations and crimes be committed by candidates, they shall be investigated by the Branch for the Investigation into Electoral Violations and Crimes in Tehran after the elections are held.
Note 2: The judicial apparatus in every province or department shall take the necessary measures to pursue crime within the relevant laws and rules.
Article 7: Article 38 of the law shall be amended as follows:
a) After the expression “Registrar’s Office”, the expression “of the Chief Justice” [«رئیس دادگستری] shall be added and instead of the expression “his representative”, the expression “the representative of the Chief of the Judiciary and Prosecution who has a judicial background [پایه قضایی] will replace it. The expression “eight people” shall be amended by the expression “nine people.”
b) In Note 2, after the word “presence of” shall be added the expression “the Chief of the Judiciary and.”
Article 8: The beginning of Article 39 of the law shall be amended as follows:
Article 39: The governor shall extend a written invitation to thirty trustees with the approval of the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections. Nine of the trustees shall be chosen as principle trustees and five shall be chosen as alternate trustees for the Executive Board, based on secret ballot and a majority of the votes in a meeting which shall be held within two days of the day of the appointment in the presence of the members of the Supervisory Board at which at least two thirds of the aforementioned trustees are present.
Article 9: In Note 1 to Article 41 of the law, the expression “Chief of the Judiciary” shall be added after the expression “Registrar’s Office or”. The expression “representatives of the Chief of the Judiciary and the Prosecution” shall be used instead of the expression “his representative”.
Article 10: In the beginning of Article 47 of the law, the expression “five people” shall be amended to the expression “five or seven people.”
Article 11: In article 50 of the law, the expression “be brought to the attention of the Board of Supervision” shall be amended to “be brought to the attention of the Board of Supervision and a representation of the Chief of the Judiciary and representatives of the candidates.”
Article 12: In Article 62 of the law, the expression “Minister of the Interior” shall be amended to “under the supervision of the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections.”
Article 13: The following clauses shall be added to Article 63 of the law as Clauses 3 and 4, and the former Clause 3 shall be amended as follows as Clause 5:
3: The secretary of the Central Board for the Supervision of the Elections
4: The council president or one of the members of the Supervisory Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Voice and Visage [government radio and television] for the election of the council
5: The president of the Voice and Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Organization or his representative plenipotentiary
Article 64 of the law is to be amended as follows:
Article 64: Should campaign programs recorded for the Voice and Vision contain insulting or humiliating material about the other candidates or other individuals or violate laws in the opinion of the Campaign Review Commission, the Voice and Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran Organization is obliged to remove this material. Should the broadcast of a live program carry the aforementioned material on behalf of any of the electoral candidates or their representatives, the Organization is obliged, at the decision of the Campaign Review Commission, to give them an opportunity to issue a proportionate recorded response.
Article 15: Article 74 of the law is to be amended as follows:
Article 74: No visual, aural, written, or electronic or virtual networks have the right to publish a note or article against an electoral candidate or write articles which cause the withdrawal of a group or individuals from particular candidates. Should such a violation arise, the aforementioned candidates have the right to submit his answer within eighteen hours after its publication via the Ministry of the Interior to the aforementioned media, and the aforementioned media is obliged to broadcast them immediately at the first time possible. Should the aforementioned media have been contacted or is not published before the deadline for the end of campaigning, its editor in chief must send the candidate’s answer to a newspaper or magazine of the same type which is published before this deadline at his own expense, and that publication is obliged to include it in its next publication.
Article 16: Article 88 of the law shall be amended as follows:
Article 88: Violations of matters included in Article 68 and its notes and people who campaign for or against one of the electoral candidates by radio or television, as well as the officials who are directly involved, shall be sentenced to from one to six months in prison.
Article 17: Article 91 of the law shall be amended as follows:
Article 91: The punishment for violations of Article 74 is the closure of the newspaper, news site, text messaging center or internet networks for from one to three months and the editor of the newspaper, news site, text messaging center or internet networks shall be condemned to being whipped with up to seventy-four blows. Should the author of the article be identified, this punishment shall include the author.
The above law, including seventeen articles, has been passed in the public session of Tuesday, the twenty-sixth of Dey, one thousand three hundred and ninety one [January 15, 2013] of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and upheld on 4/11/1391 [January 23, 2013] by the Guardian Council.
Ali Larijani, President, Islamic Consultative Assembly
Title: Law for the Amendment of the Presidential Election Law
Language: Persian
Western Date: 6 February 2013
Persian Date: 2 Bahman 1391
Physical/Electronic Location: http://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/830550