2,722 Hopefuls to Vie for 31 Tehran City Council Seats

A special parliamentary board in charge of overseeing the forthcoming city council elections has finished vetting candidates and it has approved 2,722 hopefuls to vie for 31 seats in Tehran City Council.

Alireza Rahimi, the head of Tehran Province's Oversight Board, made the announcement in an interview with ISNA on Saturday.

He said 3,000 candidates had registered in Tehran during the registration period (March 20-26), which means 90% have been qualified.

In Tehran Province, Rahimi said, out of 10,420 hopefuls, 8,981 have been cleared to run.

The Interior Ministry, the election organizer, started informing candidates about their qualification or disqualification on Saturday.

"Disqualified candidates would have until Wednesday to file appeals," he said, adding that the final results will be announced on May 8.

Qualified candidates can canvass for votes during May 11-17.

The city council votes will be held on May 19, concurrent with presidential and mid-term parliamentary elections.    

Unlike other Iranian elections overseen by the Guardians Council, the city council votes is supervised by the special board, comprising three members of the Majlis Councils and Internal Affairs Commission and two from Majlis Article 90 Commission.

In total, over 287,000 candidates signed up to vie for 178,000 council seats across the country.

Voting machines will be employed in one-sixth of the polling stations for the council votes, the total number of which is 66,000, covering one-third of eligible voters.

Police chief Hossein Ashtari said on Saturday that over 300,000 police officers would be deployed across the country to ensure election security.

He warned candidates that gatherings of supporters are subject to the Interior Ministry’s approval and unlicensed rallies will not be permitted.

Ali Asghar Ahmadi, the head of Interior Ministry’s Election Headquarters, said on Friday candidates must refrain from using state facilities for publicity campaigns.

“Campaigns should focus on their strengths and not on defaming other contenders,” he said.  Eligible voters are estimated to be around 1.5 million more than the 50.5 million of the previous city council votes.