TEHRAN, Iran — The man who was on the verge of being eliminated in the recent Assembly of Experts election has been elected as the chairman of the clerical body. Conservative Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati won the May 24 vote with the backing of 51 of the assembly’s 89 members.

The vote was between Jannati, moderate Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini and conservative Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. Amini was believed to be the candidate of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who declined to run for the chairmanship, as Al-Monitor has previously reported.

Given that the composition of the Assembly of Experts did not overly change after the Feb. 26 election, Rafsanjani knew that his candidacy for the chairmanship would cost him. Indeed, one week before the vote, he publicly stated that he would not run. Of note, Rafsanjani lost the chairmanship to conservative Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi last year.

A few days after the announcement of the results of the Feb. 26 election, Rafsanjani had asked Amini to step in to chair the assembly. At first, Amini refused. However, just days before the chairmanship vote, as pressure mounted on the 91-year-old, he agreed to nominate himself.