Voting Age

After the 1979 Revolution in Iran, the Revolution Council assumed legislative responsibilities until July 1980 and lowered the voting age in parliamentary elections from 20 to 16 in January 1980.[1] However, in 1981; the voting age was lowered by the 1st parliament to 15.[2] After 18 years, in 1999, the voting age was increased to 16 and one year after it was changed back to 15.[3] The minimum voting age for presidential elections was also decided at 15 by the parliament in 1985.[4] Finally in January 2007, in an unprecedented move, the 7th parliament increased the voting age for both parliamentary and presidential elections to 18,[5] a change that sparked a new round of debates over the issue.*

Expert reports on these changes are available here.

  • Table 1- Voting Age in Parliamentary Elections:
Parliamentary Elections Laws Year Voting Age
National Consultative Assembly – Qajar Iran 1911 20 – Male
National Consultative Assembly – Pahlavi Iran 1925 20 – Male
National Consultative Assembly – Pahlavi Iran 1964 20 – Universal
Islamic National Consultative Assembly 1980 16 – Universal
Islamic National Consultative Assembly 1984 15 – Universal
Islamic National Consultative Assembly 1999 16 – Universal
Islamic National Consultative Assembly 2000 15 – Universal
Islamic National Consultative Assembly 2007 18 – Universal
  • Table 2 – Voting Age in Presidential Elections:
Presidential Election Laws Voting Age
06/07/1981 15 – Universal
02/01/2007 18 – Universal

* Data and materials of this section have been put together by Anoushe Moddaresi.

[1]   See Chapter 2, Article 8 of the Elections Laws for National Assembly, Islamic Parliament Research Centre, http://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/98582 ( 6 February 1980).

[2]   See Expert Report, Islamic Parliament Research Centre, p.2, here (Accessed  10th August 2014).

[3] See Islamic Parliament Research Centre, http://rc.majlis.ir/fa/news/show/764793 and the text of parliamentary session 341, 5th Parliament, P.20. http://archive.ical.ir/files/debate/ip/05/05-341.pdf ( 15 December 1999)

[4] The date above is taken from parliamentary reports published by the Islamic Parliament Research Centre, see Ibid.

[5] Ibid, http://rc.majlis.ir/fa/law/show/97868 ,(2 January 2007) and Parliamentary Session 284, 7th Parliament, pp.9-15, Library of the Islamic National Consultative Assembly, 2 January 2007, http://archive.ical.ir/files/debate/ip/07/07-284.pdf (Accessed 12 June 2014).  The legislation was ratified on the 3rd of January by the Guardian Council.