The IZA elections

The Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman (IZA) will hold elections for office bearers this September. As the IZA leadership has a policy of not speaking to the Press, details about the elections are difficult to come by but Parsiana was able to obtain some information after talking to various sources. Some of the material, however, may be subject to correction. For those Iranian Zoroastrians eager to register as voters, the IZA office is located on the first floor of Kermani Building on Sir Pherozeshah Mehta Road in Bombay’s Fort district, telephone: 22040401. There is a charge of Rs 5 or Rs 10 for registering. But Parsiana was informed by one applicant that the registration was closed over a month ago.

There are around 28 seats on the General Committee (GC) up for elections. These represent the various villages in Iran whence the Iranis migrated to India many decades ago. A further 12 members can be co-opted. The GC also comprises some patron members.

From the 40 plus GC around 24 people are then elected to the Working Committee (WC), including seven of the 12 co-opted GC members. Women can vote but cannot stand for election. They may, however, be co-opted on the GC but whether they can also be co-opted on the WC is not known. The president and four vice presidents are elected from the WC. The IZA also has seven trustees whose terms are of seven years’ duration.

The GC has powers to call extraordinary meetings, pass the accounts and make major decisions. The WC deals with the day-to-day functioning of the Anjuman.