Ahmad Tavakkoli

Ahmad Tavakkoli (Template:Langx; 5 MarchTemplate:Fact 1951 – 23 July 2025) was an Iranian conservative and principlist politician and journalist. He was a member of the Expediency Discernment Council.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Also he was the managing-director of Alef news website<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and founder of the corruption watchdog, non-governmental organization Justice and Transparency Watch.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Tavakkoli was a representative of Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr electoral district in the parliament and the director of the Majlis Research Center.

Life and career

Tavakkoli was the minister of labour under Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a parliament representative from Behshahr, and a presidential candidate in two of the presidential elections in Iran (running against Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami).<ref name=jim1jun>Template:Cite news</ref>

Tavakkoli temporarily left politics after the leftist opposition forced him out of the ministry of labour. He founded Resalat, a conservative newspaper, and later left Iran to study economics in the UK, where he received his PhD.

Views and personal life

Tavakkoli was a critic of a capitalist economy, and backed the government's role in controlling the economy. He was a cousin of the Larijani brothers, including Ali Larijani and Mohammad Javad Larijani.

Tavakkoli was also a fierce critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.<ref name=rabi11>Template:Cite journal</ref> On 2 March 2011, PBS's Tehran Bureau reported that Tavakkoli criticized the then President for mentioning only Iran and not Islam in recent speeches.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Tavakkoli died of a heart attack in Tehran, on 23 July 2025, at the age of 74.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Electoral history

Year	Election	Votes	%	Rank	Notes
1980Template:Efn	Parliament	28,850	50.2	1st	Won<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
1993	President	3,972,201	24.3	2nd	Lost
2000Template:Efn	Parliament	382,867	13.06	51st	Lost<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
2001	President	Template:Increase 4,393,544	Template:Decrease 15.6	2nd	Lost
2004Template:Efn	Parliament	Template:Increase 776,979	Template:Increase 39.40	2nd	Won<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
2008Template:Efn	Parliament	Template:Decrease 568,459	Template:Increase 32.65	4th	Won<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
2012Template:Efn	Parliament Round 1	Template:Decrease 481,012	Template:Decrease 22.69	7th	Went to Round 2<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
	Parliament Round 2	Template:Decrease 404,595	Template:Increase 35.91	3rd	Won<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
2016Template:Efn	Parliament	Template:Increase 862,723	Template:Decrease 26.56	34th	Lost<ref>Template:Citation</ref>