GLOBAL CONNECTIONS: the Near/Middle East
June 1993: Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is elected president of Iran.

Iran's president, prime minister, and Cabinet ministers do not have independent decision-making power. They answer to the spiritual leader and to a group of religious scholars appointed by the spiritual leader. A legislature, appointed by the people every four years, makes laws in keeping with Islam. A council made up of six lawyers and six clergy oversee this legislature.

PBS Terror and Tehran: Inside Iran: By Popular Demand: Iranian Elections 1997-2001
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline /shows/tehran/inside/elections.html

Five years, five elections. If the results are any indication, the Iranian public has given its endorsement, time and again, to the reformers in Iran who say they are trying to fashion a more open society.


PBS The Election of President Khatami
http://www.pbs.org/visavis/BTVPagesTXT /Electionofkhatami.html

In May 1997, the Iranian people chose Mohammed Khatami to succeed Hashemi Ali Akbar Rafsanjani as president of Iran.