Sepanta Niknam
Member of the City Council of Yazd
Assumed office
3 September 2013
Suspended:9 October 2017 – 21 July 2018
Majority21,717 (8.09%)
Personal details
Bornc. 1985 (age 38–39)
Yazd, Iran
Political partyIndependent
ProfessionEconomist

Sepanta Niknam (Persian: سپنتا نیکنام) is an Iranian politician who serves as a councillor in Yazd since 2013. He is the first and only Zoroastrian to have served as councillor in the city, and the only non-Muslim in the city councils of Iran.[1]

Career

Suspension

On 18 April 2017, Ahmad Jannati, chairman of the Guardian Council tried to prevent Niknam's reelection in 2017 local election, issuing a directive to disqualify all non-Muslim candidates.[1] Following Niknam's reelection, rival candidate Ali Asghar Bagheri filed a lawsuit against Niknam, based on the Guardian Council's decree.[2] On 9 October 2017, Administrative Court of Justice ruled to suspend him, on the grounds that religious minorities should not have a representative in towns where the majority of the population was Muslim.[3] On November 26, 2017, Iranian lawmakers approved, as a consequence of his suspension, the urgency of a bill that would give the right for members of the religious minorities to nominate candidates for the city and village councils elections. The bill secured 154 yes votes, 23 no and 10 abstention. A total of 204 lawmakers were present at the parliament session.[4]

Views

Niknam is self-described politically independent. He endorsed Hassan Rouhani in the 2017 presidential election.[5]

Electoral history

YearElectionVotes %RankNotesRef
2013City Council of Yazd20,1895th WonISNA
2017City Council of YazdIncrease 21,7178.097th WonISNA

References

  1. 1 2 Shima Shahrabi (21 April 2017), "Religious Minorities Barred from Running in Local Elections", Iran Wire, retrieved 25 May 2017
  2. ↑ "Iranian Court Suspends Zoroastrian City Councilor", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 9 October 2017, retrieved 9 October 2017
  3. ↑ "Iran Suspends Zoroastrian Member of Yazd City Council", The Associated Press, The New York Times, 9 October 2017, retrieved 9 October 2017
  4. ↑ IRNA, "Iranian parliament debating bill on religious minorities", The Iran Projet, 29 November 2017
  5. ↑ Mahbod Faramarzi (27 May 2017), "I'm Supportive of the President, but Independent", Amordad (in Persian), retrieved 9 October 2017


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