page_title: Assembly of Experts
section_title: Fourth Assembly (2007–2016)
hierarchical_section_title: Assembly of Experts / Assemblies / Fourth Assembly (2007–2016)
caption_attribution_description: English: Iran's Assembly of Experts
context_page_description: The Assembly of Experts —also translated as the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership or as the Council of Experts— is the deliberative body empowered to appoint and dismiss the Supreme Leader of Iran. All directly-elected members must first be vetted by the Guardian Council and approved by the Supreme Leader before gaining membership.
  All candidates to the Assembly of Experts must be approved by the Guardian Council whose members are, in turn, appointed either directly or indirectly by the Supreme Leader. The Assembly consists of 88 Mujtahids that are elected from lists of thoroughly vetted candidates by direct public vote for eight-year terms. The number of members has ranged from 82 elected in 1982 to 88 elected in 2016. Current laws require the assembly to meet at least twice every six months.
context_section_description: The election for the fourth assembly took place on 15 December 2006 and the Assembly first convened on 19 February 2007. In July 2007, chairman Ayatollah Meshkini died, and Ayatollah Rafsanjani was elected to succeed him. On 8 March 2011, Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani replaced Ayatollah Rafsanjani as chairman. On 4 June 2014, Mahdavi Kani fell into a coma after suffering a heart attack and died on 21 October 2014. He was succeeded by Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as acting chairman.
  
  The term was intended to last for ten years, rather than the usual eight, due to the "election aggregation" plan of the government put in place to allow the government to run elections simultaneously for the Assembly of Experts and the Parliament, thereby economizing election administration costs.
caption: The first season in the year of 2013
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)"}