2039 (November) Persian Congress Election

The **November 2039 Persian Congress Election** was held on Saturday November 5, 2039, and was the seventh congressional election to elect representatives to the National People's Congress of Persia. The election was only the fourth to be held on a day other than November 11 and was held concurrently with the 2039 presidential election as part of a scheduled general election. The election saw members to the 9th Persian Congress elected; elected representatives were sworn into office on November 17, 2039.

Following President Hassen Ahmed's decision to hold snap elections in September 2038 to avoid an impeachment motion, Persian politics became embroiled in a major political and economic crisis after legislative elections in September 2038 and May 2039 failed to produce majorities for any party or ideological bloc, resulting in a series of short-lived and unstable governments. In June 2039, the governing Union for Persia joined with the opposition Progressive Party to form a grand coalition until scheduled elections in November 2039; however, the election of Tamim bin Hamad as UfP leader midway through the coalition government's tenure upended the period of relative stability and prompted a new bout of crisis as the UfP abandoned its longstanding centrist policy position and adopted a populist conservative platform.

During the electoral campaign, conservative politicians within the Union for Persia, People's Party, and Islamic Conservative Party formed an informal electoral alliance designed to ensure the formation of a conservative coalition government following the election; at multiple pre-election debates, the party leaders Tamim bin Hamad, Aabid Rafiq, and Ebrahim Raisi respectively refused to attack each other's records, and instead focused on mutural opponents such as centrist president Hassen Ahmed, Progressive Party leader Amal Alamuddin, and former president Geena Kulmuni. However, despite conservative unity, the various parties on the political left wing struggled to unite in a similar fashion to present a unified alternative - the leftist populist Halqa party openly rejected the Progressive Party to a similar degree as it rejected the Union for Persia, whilst the Persian Worker's Party refused to rule out cooperation with the UfP if presented with agreeable terms.

In order to be eligible to receive seats in the National People's Congress of Persia, political parties must register with the Electoral Board at least eight months before an election and give notice of any and all candidates that they intend to stand at the next election within four months of their registration; candidate lists may then be updated at any point until the dissolution of congress for an election. Elections to the National People's Congress of Persia take place using a regional proportional representation system - the country is divided into 153 constituencies, which each elect at least 3 representatives based on the distribution of votes in the constituency, with more populated regions such as Dubai and Amman receiving more representation than the sparsely populated Arabian desert constituencies. Constituency changes made by the government in 2036 entered into effect for the first time in the November 2039 election. Since 2029, elections have been conducted using electronic voting devices at poling booths, which has enabled near instantaneous publication of results following the closing of polling.

Following the conclusion of voting on November 5, 2039, the results of the congressional election were announced by the Electoral Board on November 7th; the Union for Persia won 199 seats, the Progressive Party won 183, Halqa won 99 seats, the People's Party won 66 seats, the Islamic Conservative Party won 37 seats, and the Persian Worker's Party won 16 seats. Continuing the trend from previous elections, the previously dominant Union for Persia and Progressive Party lost a combined total of 52 seats to emerging smaller parties, leaving no party able to form a government by themselves. Representatives were sworn into office on Monday November 14, 2039 by clerks of congress, and the eighth National People's Congress began the same day.