In the quaint morning of March 5 news arrived in the National Assembly that President Mohammad Mosaddegh has passed away over the night due to unsuspected heart failure. The 84-year-old President was found dead in his home by a secretary worried about his boss not showing up for a rather important government meeting.

While the nation of Iran, especially Republican supporters, have gone into mourning over the loss of such a definitive Father of the democratic Iranian Republic, the National Assembly has commenced discussion over the subject of the President's successor. A constitutional clause regarding the role of an acting-President is brought up, which designates the Prime Minister to fill the President's role while a new President is selected by the Assembly.

Quickly, Prime Minister Hussein Makki is sworn in to take over Mosaddegh's immediate duties as the Head of State, of which there are many.

With pressing issues at hand and a new formal head of state required immediately however, the Parliament, with a majority vote of 148, calls for a vote the following week to determine Mosaddegh's successor. As the Republican Party continues to hold a firm majority in the Assembly, the majority of candidates being speculated hail from their ranks.

Karim Sanjabi, Mosaddegh's long-time Foreign Minister and friend is the first to be brought up. The prominent democratic leftist, active in politics long before Mosaddegh's first government took form and a firm proponent of the oil nationalization program, is supported by a good part of the Republican Party's cadre. The Socialist Party under Khalil Maleki throws their support behind Sanjabi, and the Communist Party seems to be toying with the idea to do the same.

Beginning with the recent initiation of large-scale industrialization, Ali Shayegan has taken strides to make a name for himself in the Republican Party just the same. While without a prominent career in politics comparable to that of Sanjabi's, Shayegan's star shines brighter in the moment.

Prime Minister Makki seems to be drawing a fair amount of supporters just the same, mostly from hard-line centrist Mosaddegh followers suspicious of Sanjabi's more leftist roots and distrusting of his ability to balance between the left and the right both at home and internationally.

With the leading figure of Mosaddegh gone and an internal political fight between the Republicans brewing, cliques within the party become more and more apparent by the day. Acting President Hussein Makki has been drawing a fair third to half of the Republican Party's membership, as well as members of Iran Novin. Karim Sanjabi has been called the "logical choice", his supporters citing his vast foreign political expertise that would be of much use in the highly complex political situation in the Middle-East and the world at large. His long tenure in politics, both as a loyal follower of Mosaddegh and a powerful independent actor in Iranian politics play in his favour.

In contrast, the long reign of Mosaddegh at the top of first the machine of the National Front and later the Republican Party has disenfranchised a fair few parliamentaries, raising the appeal of the perceivably newer Shayegan. His rather revolutionary plans for the country's economy and population and his somewhat do-what-I-want approach to it successfully summons the right-wing banners, with both Mellat Iran and the Old Nationalist Party supporting his candidacy in full force. After a day of negotiations, Shayegan also brings another quarter of the Republican Party as well as part of SUMKA to his lair.

With the intense debates and maneuvering within the Assembly widely broadcasted in the Iranian media, the public makes up their own image of the three main candidates. Makki, Sanjabi and Shayegan become the Mosaddeghist, the Veteran, and the Revolutionary respectively.

A week after Mosaddegh's death, the Assembly holds their vote on the successor President to fill the role until the next parliamentary and presidential elections of 1969.

• Ali Shayegan - 35%
• Hussein Makki - 33%
• Karim Sanjabi - 28%
• other candidates - 4%

With that, the minor candidates as well as Karim Sanjabi are thrown out of the vote, leaving Hussein Makki and Ali Shayegan to battle it out in the 2nd round. Negotiations begin immediately between both candidates and Sanjabi's now up-for-grabs supporters. It becomes clear very quickly that Shayegan's right-wing supporter base, harsh political methods and far too quick rise in power has alienated him among the rather traditional Sanjabi bloc, sending a majority of the latter in the direction of Makki's camp. The second vote is held 2 days later.

• Hussein Makki - 56%
• Ali Shayegan - 40%
• no vote - 4%

Hussein Makki has been sworn in as the 2nd President of the Republic, to serve until the next elections set to take place in 1969.