With Raisi’s death in chopper crash, who will be Iran’s new president?

After a night-long search operation hampered by bad weather, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other top officials have been declared dead.

Dozens of emergency rescue teams had been dispatched to the mountainous area in northwestern Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, where the incident took place on Sunday afternoon.

According to the Iranian Constitution, the first Vice President – Mohammad Mokhber – will now take over as the new president of the country for 50 days.

During this period, a high-powered council comprising the first vice president, the Speaker of Parliament and the chief of the judiciary have to make sure new elections are held.

Article 131 of the Iranian Constitution stipulates this, in the event of the death or illness of the sitting president.

“In the event of the death, removal, resignation, absence or illness of the president for more than two months, or in the event that the term of the presidency has ended and the new president has not yet been elected due to obstacles, the first vice president assumes his powers and responsibilities with the agreement of the leadership, and a council consisting of the speaker of the parliament, the head of the judiciary and the first vice president is obliged to arrange for early presidential elections to be held within a maximum period of fifty days,” says the article.

Raisi was elected Iran’s president in 2021 after winning by a landslide, garnering 17.9 million votes out of the 28.9 million cast during the polls.

He previously headed the Iranian judiciary and also served as the head of the revered Imam Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad, his hometown.

EBRAHİM RAİSİ

Known as a jurist and religious figure, the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was born on December 14, 1960, in Mashhad. Following the 1979 revolution, he began his career as a prosecutor in 1981.

Rising swiftly in his position, Raisi became Deputy Prosecutor General of Tehran at the young age of 25.

Raisi was part of a 4-member committee that, under the instruction of Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued the death sentences for regime opponents imprisoned in 1988.

After Khomeini's death and during Ali Khamenei's tenure, Raisi rapidly climbed the ranks in state offices. He served as Tehran's prosecutor general from 1989 to 1994.

In 1994, Raisi was appointed as the head of the State Inspectorate Organization, a position he held for 10 years.

In 2004, Raisi was appointed as the first deputy chief of the judiciary. He later became Iran's attorney general in 2014 and was appointed as the head of the Imam Reza Shrine and Foundation in Mashhad by Khamenei in 2016.

Raisi also ran as a candidate in the presidential elections held on May 19, 2017, but lost to the then-incumbent President Hassan Rouhani.

Following the dismissal of Ayatollah Amoli Larijani from the judiciary chief position and his appointment as the head of the Expediency Discernment Council by Khamenei, Raisi assumed the vacant position of judiciary chief in March 2019.

In the presidential elections held on June 18, 2021, Raisi won by a large margin, securing 62% of the votes, thus becoming Iran's 8th president.

AA