Sepanta Niknam (Persian: سپنتا نیکنام) is an Iranian politician who has served as a councillor in Yazd since 2013.
[1] On 18 April 2017, Ahmad Jannati, chairman of the Guardian Council tried to prevent Niknam's reelection in 2017 local election, issuing a directive to disqualify all non-Muslim candidates.
[1] Following Niknam's reelection, rival candidate Ali Asghar Bagheri filed a lawsuit against Niknam, based on the Guardian Council's decree.
[2] On 9 October 2017, Administrative Court of Justice ruled to suspend him, on the grounds that religious minorities should not have a representative in towns where the majority of the population was Muslim.
[3] On November 26, 2017, Iranian lawmakers approved, as a consequence of his suspension, the urgency of a bill that would give the right for members of the religious minorities to nominate candidates for the city and village councils elections.