2035 Persian Presidential Election

The **2035 Persian Presidential Election** was the fifth presidential election held within the Persian Republic, held after a year delay due to the 2034-35 Persian Constitutional Crisis, with arrangements to hold a delayed election being negotiated in August 2035 between president Geena Kulmuni and opposition leader Hassen Ahmed. The election was contested between the Union for Persia (UfP) and the Progressive party.

As part of the 2025 Constitution, the 2035 presidential election was held through an electoral college, with each of the 81 proportionally sized states and provinces of the Republic of Persia each voting for a candidate, with the candidate who secured the most states winning. Each state held their own independent elections, with states all using first past the post to determine the allocation of state votes to candidates. All of the 81 states have a rough population of approximately 1.1 million, which ensures that no one region is under represented and no regions are underrepresented in the electoral system; in the instance that a candidate won the popular vote and not the states vote, then the state's vote could be annulled by a vote in Congress in order to ensure that the results were fair and democratic.

For the first time under the 2025 constitution, the 2035 presidential election broke the requirement of regular quinquennial elections following the constitutional crisis and President Geena Kulmuni's refusal to hold new elections in November 2034; the election was only facilitated by a transition agreement signed between President Kulmuni and opposition leader Hassen Ahmed which was brokered by Shanghai Pact Secretary General Stanford Newman. However, the election remained legal due to an executive order and treaty signed by President Geena Kulmuni which provided an one-off exception to the constitution. In the aftermath of the 2035 coup d'état attempt, Union for Persia leader Hassen Ahmed had been appointed as prime minister by President Geena Kulmuni, allowing him to build up a political image for himself in government; despite the Islamic Conservative Party (ICP) having left the Union for Persia, the ICP did not stand a candidate in the election and instead agreed to enter a parliamentary coalition with the UfP if Hassen Ahmed was elected president and held new congressional elections.

The presidential election was contested by President Geena Kulmuni and Unionist party nominee Hassen Ahmed, with Ahmed winning election with the most states carried and the higher popular vote count. Subsequently on November 17, 2035, Hassen Ahmed was inaugurated as the 9th president of Persia. Despite having been removed from office, Geena Kulmuni had negotiated a settlement with the Shanghai Pact to enter Persia into the organisation's Coordination Council, thereby stripping incoming president Ahmed of his ability to set independent policy without Libirachi approval. Similarly, Kulmuni had secretly negotiated with Libirachi Empress Penny Fox to be given the chance to govern the Shanghai Pact; on November 20, 2035, General Secretary Stanford Newman resigned his office and Geena Kulmuni assumed the role of General Secretary of the Shanghai Pact, before being formally elected to the position in December of the same year.