Comparative Analysis of Elections of the Parliament of Iran and the UK

The holding of free elections is one of the most prominent characteristics of democracy in today's world. The third paragraph of Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that, “the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections". Hence, the parliament and the way of conducting the elections of the parliament in one country play a decisive role in the will of the people of a country. The main purpose of the present study is to comparatively examine the methods of holding and monitoring parliamentary elections in Iran and in the United Kingdom. The other objective of the present study is to consider the types of monitoring in Iran and the interpretation of the Guardian Council of the concept of monitoring. The findings of the present study show that the characteristics upon which the organizers of Iran’s elections rely are general, vague, and entirely controversial features which are interpreted differently in each term, and always leave room for ‘buts’ and ‘ifs’. In the UK legal system, however, contrary to Iran, the United Kingdom's jurisdiction and monitoring authority does not, in view of the objective nature of the criteria, create the problems that govern the Iranian electoral system.