Rafsanjani bounces back to head Iran clerical body

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TEHRAN, Sept 4 (AFP): Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was elected head of Iran's Assembly of Experts Tuesday, continuing a political comeback from the humiliation of his defeat in the 2005 presidential election.
Rafsanjani becomes the second head of the Assembly of Experts the body which supervises the work of the supreme leader-after the death of previous chairman Ayatollah Ali Meshkini who led the body for its 27 years of existence.
The pragmatic ex-president polled 41 votes from fellow members of the Assembly in the closed-door election while the hardline cleric Ahmad Jannati won 34 votes, the public relations department of the Assembly told AFP.
A total of 76 votes were cast, with one abstention, it added. "Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been elected to the chairmanship of the fourth Assembly of Experts," the official IRNA news agency confirmed.
The main job of the Assembly is to supervise and select the supreme leader, currently Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 67. If the performance of the supreme leader is deemed inadequate, it even has the power to oust him.
The vote marks another step in the political comeback of Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989-1997, after his thrashing by hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 election.
Rafsanjani had already in 2006 polled the highest number of votes in the universal suffrage elections held every eight years to choose the 86 members of the Assembly.
His pragmatic streak contrasts with the confrontational rhetoric of Ahmadinejad and his hardline allies.
The 2008 election for Iran's parliament is being seen by observers as a crucial face-off between hardliners close to Ahmadinejad and more moderate forces aligned with Rafsanjani.
"Although the Assembly does not have a significant role in policy making I see Rafsanjani's election as very important," said Saeed Laylaz, a reformist political analyst.
"There is now a strong consensus on Rafsanjani among the educated elite and the technocrats, the traditional right and the clerics," he said. "This gives him great leverage to play a more important role in Iranian politics."