Legislature

The Majles Shoraye Eslami, translated as the Islamic Consultative Assembly or Islamic Parliament of Iran, is Iran’s unicameral legislature: it has one parliamentary chamber. The Inter-Parliamentary Union records a statutory membership of 290 and a parliamentary term of four years. A statutory seat total describes the chamber’s authorized size; it should not be confused with the number of occupied seats on a particular date. s1

Five seats are reserved for specified religious minorities: one each for Zoroastrians and Jews, one jointly for Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, and one each for Armenian Christians in the north and south. This arrangement provides designated representation for those communities rather than a general quota covering every religious minority. s1

Article 94 requires parliamentary legislation to be sent to the Guardian Council for review against Islamic criteria and the Constitution. Incompatible legislation is returned for reconsideration. Article 112 provides for the Expediency Council to address unresolved disagreements between parliament and the Guardian Council. Parliamentary approval is consequently one stage in the constitutional lawmaking process. s3

Parliament’s relationship with government includes approving ministers and questioning executive officials. These procedures give representatives formal opportunities to scrutinize administration, although their existence alone does not demonstrate effective accountability in every case. s4

Freedom House’s 2026 report describes a restricted electoral environment: the Guardian Council screens candidates, excluding people deemed insufficiently loyal to the establishment. It distinguishes competition among approved political factions from the possibility of an unrestricted opposition taking power. Its assessment therefore challenges any assumption that elected membership necessarily entails open political competition. s2

The Inter-Parliamentary Union’s account of the 2024 election reports that principlists won most seats. In this context, principlists denotes conservative political currents emphasizing the Islamic Republic’s revolutionary principles. The same account records the disqualification of prominent centrists and reformists before voting, alongside calls for an election boycott. s5

These findings illustrate two different stages of representation: determining who may stand and determining which permitted candidates voters select. Reporting only the final parliamentary balance leaves the first stage unexplained. This example concerns the documented 2024 election; it does not establish the composition of every subsequent political alliance. s5

A useful account of the legislature distinguishes authorized seats, electoral access, and the legal effect of a parliamentary decision. Each answers a different question. Seat totals describe institutional size, candidate screening shapes the available choices, and constitutional review determines whether an approved measure can proceed through the lawmaking process. s1s2s3