| Ahmad Tavakkoli | |
| Office: | Member of Expediency Discernment Council |
| Term Start: | 14 August 2017 |
| Appointer: | Ali Khamenei |
| 1Blankname: | Chairman |
| 1Namedata: | Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi Sadeq Larijani |
| Order1: | President of the Majlis Research Center |
| Term Start1: | 1 July 2004 |
| Term End1: | 1 July 2012 |
| Predecessor1: | Mohammad Reza Khatami |
| Successor1: | Kazem Jalali |
| Office2: | Minister of Labour |
| Term Start2: | 2 November 1981 |
| Term End2: | 2 August 1983 |
| President2: | Ali Khamenei |
| Primeminister2: | Mir-Hossein Mousavi |
| Predecessor2: | Mohammad Mir-Mohammad Sadeqi |
| Successor2: | Abolqasem Sarhadizadeh |
| Office3: | Member of the Parliament of Iran |
| Term Start3: | 28 May 2004 |
| Term End3: | 28 May 2016 |
| Constituency3: | Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr |
| Majority3: | 776,979 |
| Term Start4: | 28 May 1980 |
| Term End4: | 12 November 1981 |
| Constituency4: | Behshahr |
| Majority4: | 28,850 |
| Birth Date: | 5 March 1951 |
| Birth Place: | Behshahr, Iran |
| Party: | Front of Transformationalist Principlists[1] |
| Otherparty: | Islamic Republican Party Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization[2] |
| Alma Mater: | University of Nottingham |
| Relatives: |
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| Residence: | Tehran, Iran |
| Signature: | Ahmad Tavakoli signature.svg |
Ahmad Tavakkoli (; born 5 March 1951) is an Iranian conservative and principlist politician, journalist. He is currently member of the Expediency Discernment Council.[5] Also he is currently managing-director of Alef news website[6] and founder of the corruption watchdog, non-governmental organization Justice and Transparency Watch.[7]
Tavakkoli is the former representative of Tehran, Rey, Shemiranat and Eslamshahr electoral district in the parliament and the director of Majlis Research Center.
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).[8]
Tavakkoli temporarily left politics after the leftists oppositions 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.
Tavakkoli is a critic of a capitalist economy, and backs the government's role in controlling the economy. He is a cousin of the Larijani brothers, including Ali Larijani and Mohammad Javad Larijani.
Tavakkoli was also a fierce critic of President Ahmadinejad.[9] On 2 March 2011, the PBS' Tehran Bureau reported that Tavakkoli criticized the then President for mentioning only Iran and not Islam in recent speeches.[10]
| Year | Election | Votes | % | Rank | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Parliament | 28,850 | 50.2 | 1st | Won |
| 1993 | President | 3,972,201 | 24.3 | 2nd | Lost |
| 2000 | Parliament | 382,867 | 13.06 | 51st | Lost |
| 2001 | President | 4,393,544 | 15.6 | 2nd | Lost |
| 2004 | Parliament | 776,979 | 39.40 | 2nd | Won |
| 2008 | Parliament | 568,459 | 32.65 | 4th | Won |
| 2012 | Parliament Round 1 | 481,012 | 22.69 | 7th | Went to Round 2 |
| Parliament Round 2 | 404,595 | 35.91 | 3rd | Won[11] | |
| 2016 | Parliament | 862,723 | 26.56 | 34th | Lost |