Iranian constitutional referendum, 1989

Constitution amendment referendum

Do you approve the amendments to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran?

Location

Date

July 28, 1989

Results
	Votes	%
Yes	16,025,459	7001975700000099999♠97.57%
No	398,867	7000243000000000000♠2.43%
Valid votes	16,424,326	7001998000000000000♠99.80%
Invalid or blank votes	32,445	6999200000000000000♠0.2%
Total votes	16,456,771	100.00%
Registered voters/turnout	30,139,598	54.51%

A constitutional referendum was held in Iran on 28 July 1989, alongside presidential elections. Approved by 97.6% of voters, It was the first and so far only time the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been amended. It made several changes to articles 5, 107, 109, 111, and added article 176. It eliminated the need for the Supreme Leader (rahbar) of the country to be a marja or chosen by popular acclaim, it eliminated the post of prime minister, and it created a Supreme National Security Council.

On 24 April 1989 while on his deathbed, Ayatollah Khomeini appointed a 25-man "Council for the Revision of the Constitution" (Persian: شورای بازنگری قانون اساسی‎, translit. Šūrā-ye bāznegarī-e qānūn-e asāsī‎). The council named Ali Khamenei as Khomeini's successor as Supreme Leader of Iran and drew up several amendments to the original constitution. Since the senior mujtahid or Marja of Iran had given only lukewarm support to Khomeini's principle of rule by Islamic jurist, and Khamenei was not a marja, the original prerequisite that the rahbar (leader) be "a paramount faqih" (i.e. one of these marja) was dropped from the constitution.

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