Will Iran reinstate its abolished Senate?
Nearly 40 years after the dissolution of the Senate, some Iranian politicians are increasingly speaking about the need to revive the country’s abolished political body.
Forty years after revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini described the Iranian Senate as a “stupid” entity, certain political figures are saying that such a chamber now is a “necessity” for the country. Prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Senate was part of the political structure of Iran. But the new constitution written by the revolutionaries abolished it and introduced unicameral government.
What is notable today is that those who are speaking of the importance of reviving this assembly hail from both sides of the political spectrum. This means there is hope for an agreement to emerge. On the other hand, one key issue is that the majority of the political figures inside Iran have chosen not to express an opinion regarding a senate, since they do not consider it a priority, and more importantly, some influential high-ranking officials have publicly expressed their opposition to such an idea.
During the past 40 years, the Iranian Constitution has only been revised once, in 1989, by the orders of Ayatollah Khomeini. Since then, the Iranian government has not shown any serious interest in revising the constitution, which would require the consent of the supreme leader. In recent years, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has only once spoken about the possibility of changing the political structure of the country, back in 2011, when he mentioned the possibility of replacing the president with a prime minister. Even then, he had said such a move would only take place under special circumstances. Now, seven years later, there are no signs that the Iranian leader, or indeed the country’s political establishment, is interested in taking such a step.
Mid-level political forces, however, have called for the country to have a senate again. Mohammad Reza Bahonar, one of the more influential figures of the Principlist movement, and Mohammad Javad Fathi, a Reformist member of parliament, have both spoken of the importance of such a step. Fathi even resigned about a month ago in protest of the parliament’s inability to exert any influence. In an interview with local media, Fathi, whose resignation was not accepted by parliament's presiding board, said one of the main reasons why he decided to resign was the interference of “parallel organizations” in affairs of the parliament. He said that instead of all these parallel organizations, the country needs a senate.
