Ma`rifat Siyasi

Today, elections are recognized as the primary method of political participation in popular systems and hold a central place in representative democracies, to the extent that understanding this concept is impossible without considering elections. Nevertheless, numerous perspectives exist on the nature of elections, each of which can lead to the establishment of a different electoral system. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the nature and consequences of elections from the perspective of Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi, as a prominent political thinker in the Islamic world following the Islamic Revolution of Iran and one of the theoreticians of religious democracy. This analysis contributes to a more precise explanation of the nature of the Islamic Republic and religious democracy. Ayatollah Misbah Yazdi, with his “testimony” (shahādah) view of the nature of elections, adopts a distinctive approach to this subject, which entails far-reaching consequences for concepts such as political legitimacy, the qualifications of candidates and voters, the scope of elections, the framework for electoral oversight, and other related components. This perspective differs fundamentally from other prevalent theories in this field and can inspire the design of a new electoral system. This research employs an analytical-descriptive method using library sources.