A Comparative Study of the Electoral Rights of Foreigners in the Light of International Documents and Domestic Laws (with a look at Iranian law)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Humanities, University of Bojnord.

Abstract

Electoral rights are a kind of political right that, from the point of view of some commentators, should be the exclusive privilege of the citizens of a country. However, today's democratic societies host a large population of aliens (foreigners) who often have more common interests with the citizens of the host country than with the citizens of their home countries; therefore, it is not surprising that in recent times, governments have reached the observance of electoral rights for foreigners. This article has considered the process of granting electoral rights to foreigners in the host country in a descriptive-analytical way. The results of this study show that although today the granting of these rights is not dependent on citizenship status in many countries, the scope of these rights and the conditions that must be met by foreigners are different from one country to another. In Iran, the right to vote or the candidacy of foreigners has not been considered in any of the local and national elections. Immigrant being acceptance in Iran and especially the large presence of Afghan immigrants who are active in various economic sectors requires the enactment of special laws to grant electoral rights to foreigners at least at the local level in order to strengthen the possibility of influencing and encouraging more immigrants to obey the existing laws.

Keywords

References

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