A 93-year-old Shiite cleric in Iran was elected on Tuesday to a two-year term as chairman of the influential Assembly of Experts, the Iranian news agency ISNA reported.
The arch-conservative preacher Mohammad Ali Kermani replaces the former chairman, Ahmad Jannati, who is 97.
The council is composed of 88 Shiite cleric who are elected to eight-year terms. They determine the successor to the supreme leader in the event of his death.
Two members of the council were killed in the helicopter accident at the weekend: president Ebrahim Raisi and Mohammed-Ali Ale-Hashem, an imam who led the key Friday services in the city of Tabriz.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who turned 85 in April, is the most powerful man in Iran.
The Assembly of Experts was reappointed by Iranian voters at the same time as this year's parliamentary elections. Before the election, some criticized the disqualification of moderate ex-president Hassan Ruhani, who was a member of the assembly for more than 20 years.