Iran’s Assembly of Experts is preparing to convene to select a new supreme leader following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, a senior cleric said on March 8, outlining the constitutional procedure as deliberations move towards a decision amid wartime security constraints, Mehr News Agency reported.

Under Iran’s constitution, the 88-member clerical body must hold a formal session, review qualified candidates and elect a successor with a two-thirds majority vote.

The process is unfolding under exceptional circumstances after a series of airstrikes and heightened security risks complicated efforts to assemble members in one location, forcing the council to rely initially on consultations and written exchanges while preparing for a final in-person vote.

Mojtaba Hosseini, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the body would convene to consider shortlisted candidates before holding a final ballot. A three-member committee is responsible for examining the qualifications of potential contenders under Articles 109 and 111 of the Constitution, after which leading candidates are introduced in a formal session and members cast their votes.

“The selected candidate must secure at least two-thirds of the votes of the members,” Hosseini said, adding that the assembly was expected to reach a decision in the coming days.

Until a successor is formally appointed, a provisional leadership council consisting of President Masoud Pezeshkian, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, and a member of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, has been established to ensure continuity in state administration and prevent any institutional vacuum, he said.

Iranian constitutional law requires the assembly to meet with at least two-thirds of its members present and conduct deliberations in person before a vote can be deemed legally valid. Mohsen Borhani, a legal scholar, said Article 107 of the constitution and the assembly’s internal regulations stipulate that decisions based solely on individual written votes or remote participation would lack legal standing.

Even so, several members indicated that consultations since Khamenei’s death had already narrowed the field of potential candidates. Iranian and regional media have pointed to Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader’s second son, as a leading contender, though officials have not publicly confirmed any name.

Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, a senior cleric and member of the assembly, said the leadership election had effectively been settled internally and dismissed reports that the body had yet to reach a decision. According to him, the formal announcement now rests with the assembly’s secretariat, headed by Ayatollah Ahmad Hosseini Bushehri, which is responsible for communicating the outcome.

Other members said the delay in naming a successor shows the unusual circumstances surrounding the transition rather than disagreements over the choice.

Several clerics said the Assembly of Experts began consultations within hours of Khamenei’s death and has since held multiple discussions to assess candidates meeting the constitutional criteria, including religious scholarship, administrative capability and political judgement.