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Leading Elections NGO Releases Comprehensive Overview of Iran’s Electoral System

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The desk study is available in PDF format here.

WASHINGTON, DC (March 29, 2011)—Duality by Design: The Iranian Electoral System, the first comprehensive overview of Iran’s electoral framework, is now available from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).  

Written by Yasmin Alem, a researcher specializing in international development, with the collaboration of top elections expert Jørgen Elklit and Iranian legal scholar and human rights defender Mehrangiz Kar, the report presents a clear outline of the little-understood Iranian electoral system.  

"After the 2009 presidential election, it became clear that there wasn’t enough information on Iran’s electoral system. This desk study aims to fill that gap as it provides an objective snapshot of the way elections are implemented in Iran," says Bill Sweeney, IFES President and CEO.   

Duality by Design: An Overview of the Iranian Electoral System provides insight into 'the rules of the game' for presidential, parliamentary and local council elections; an assessment of the election management bodies involved in the implementation and supervision of elections; and candidate registration and vetting rates. Drawing upon electoral laws, academic sources, interviews, and an extensive review of 30 years of Iranian press, the report also presents empirical data on the results of elections for the past three decades and a history of Iranian elections since 1906.  

The desk study is being released at an event held at IFES’ headquarters in Washington, DC that will feature the author, Yasmin Alem; Andrew Reynolds, elections expert and associate professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and Barbara Slavin, non-resident senior fellow at Atlantic Council. For more information on the event, please click here

"Duality by Design: The Iranian Electoral System is wonderful and detailed study on the duality – and contradictions – of Iran's electoral system," says Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council. 

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