What kind of legacy does Iran's supreme leader want?

Farideh Farhi pictures Ayatollah Ali Khamenei contemplating his legacy as an election day of 26 February approaches for Iranians to elect the 88 clerics who will sit in the Experts’ Assembly, majles-e khobregan, the body whose sole real function is to elect Iran’s rahbar (leader).

The poll is important, Farhi, lecturer at the University of Hawaii, told Tehran Bureau in an interview, not just because the assembly may during its eight-year term choose a successor to 76-year-old Khamenei. She believes the election, and the way it is conducted, will shape the whole future of the post of the supreme leader and his office, beyt-e rahbari, which are the lynchpins of Iran’s political structure.

This makes the next few weeks crucial, and Farhi will be looking very closely at the vetting of candidates by the constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council.

There are no clear precedents. Elections to the Experts’ Assembly have in the past seen the Guardian Council tightly restrict the field, and the only succession in the leadership since the 1979 Revolution saw Khamenei win the assembly’s approval in 1989 largely due to the prior approval given him by the ailing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2016/jan/15/legacy-iran-supreme-leader-ayatollah-khamanei