A grandson of the late founder of the Islamic Republic has registered his candidacy for the forthcoming elections to Iran’s assembly of experts, a clerical body in charge of appointing the next supreme leader.

The immediate family of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the former leader and the architect of the 1979 revolution, have largely stayed on the sidelines of politics, avoiding senior official roles. But the candidacy of Hassan Khomeini, the ayatollah’s most prominent grandson and custodian of his household, signals a new era.

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On Friday, Hassan Khomeini took his national ID and passport-size photos to the ministry of the interior in Tehran to register for the poll in February, which are being held on the same day as the parliamentary elections. But his candidacy must first be approved by the Guardian Council, a powerful unelected body that vets candidates.

The 43-year-old cleric is sympathetic to reformists and backed Hassan Rouhani, the moderate Iranian president, in the 2013 vote. Despite leading reformist figures having been marginalised over the past decade and often blocked from running in elections, Hassan Khomeini’s status means his candidacy is likely to be approved. He said on Friday that he would run as an independent, but he is already being touted as a future reformist hope.



Hassan Khomeini’s life is illuminated by his son, Ahmad, who is hugely popular on Instagram. His account is a rare window on to the private life of his father, sometimes pictured without a clerical robe.



The Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has previously blocked many reformist and independent candidates from running in elections. In 2013, it prevented Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from running in the presidential election, to the surprise of many observers.

Under the Islamic Republic’s constitution, all officials are in theory elected or appointed directly or indirectly by the people. Iran’s assembly of experts is tasked with appointing and dismissing the supreme leader, but Khamenei, like his predecessor, has become so powerful that the assembly’s role has diminished to a symbolic one, with members acting as his devotees, in effect stripped of their supervisory power.

The Guardian Council’s filtering of the candidates has made Iranian votes far from free election standards, but this has not stopped polls being competitive. In 2013, Rouhani, albeit an approved candidate, created an extraordinary momentum for change and was elected on a mandate considered at home and abroad to be legitimate.



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Although the assembly of experts does not have much power as long as Khamenei, 76, is alive, it would regain its decisive role at the time of his death. As members will not face re-election for another eight years, the next assembly is highly likely to play an instrumental role in finding a successor. It is dominated by hardliners, but with the likes of Hassan Khomeini, reformists are pinning their hopes to shift the political balance within the group towards moderation.

Khamenei’s succession has largely remained a taboo subject, but an increasing number of senior Iranian politicians have commented on the subject in recent months, igniting the debate in private on who will succeed him. Some, including Rafsanjani, have even suggested that Iran could be ruled by a council of leaders after Khamenei, rather than a sole supreme one. The military has rebuked such suggestions, but the mere fact that the issue is being discussed shows an internal power struggle has begun.



Despite the crackdown, hardliners have been unsuccessful at completely purging reformist figures. As more reformists are silenced, a greater number of hitherto neutral figures such as Hassan Khomeini have entered politics. The leader of Iran’s reformist movement, the former president Mohammad Khatami, is currently facing increasing restrictions, including being subject to a blackout on any mention of his name or images in the media.

Meanwhile, opposition leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi, his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, and Mehdi Karroubi, all former revolutionaries, have been placed under house arrest since 2011 and kept largely isolated from the outside world. Iranian hardliners have since tried to erase their names and pictures from the pages of Iranian history, to no avail.

