President Hassan Rouhani said Iranians' ballots in the upcoming city council elections greatly affect how their cities are governed, as Iranians are about to decide who to vote for on May 19.
"People's votes can have a far-reaching impact on the management of their cities and determine whether their representatives adhere to their views or not," the president said in his address to the Fifth International Summit of the World Assembly of Islamic Cities in Qazvin on Sunday, President.ir reported.
The city council votes will be held concurrently with presidential and midterm parliamentary elections.
Iranian city councils are in charge of electing the mayor, supervising the municipality and approving its budget.
A special parliamentary board in charge of overseeing the city council elections has finished vetting over 287,000 candidates who had signed up to vie for 178,000 council seats across the country.
For Tehran City Council, the biggest council with 31 members, it has approved 2,722 hopefuls out of a total of 3,000.
Rouhani said Iranian cities need "comprehensive and inclusive" measures and a unified management method that considers all effects of its decisions, particularly on environment.
"With integrated management, big cities can be better governed, their long-term development goals can be realized, enough income can be generated for its people and social gaps can be bridged," he said. Rouhani lamented that Iranian municipalities earn their incomes mainly by issuing unfettered building permits, stressing the need to search for better, more stable sources of revenues.
"Choosing wrong ways of funding the cost of running the cities, such as selling surplus building density, is akin to selling the rights of people and of [future] generations," he said, adding that his administration is ready to help find sustainable funding sources for municipalities.
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