Reformists Win Tehran City Council Elections

With a decisive victory, all candidates of a reformist moderate alliance swept the seats of Tehran City Council, undoing the principlists' narrow majority in the 21-member elected assembly.  

Nation-wide city council elections were held Friday, concurrent with the presidential vote.

The 56-million-strong electorate could pick representatives to take 39,575 councilor seats in 1,245 cities, 1,057 counties and 2,589 villages. 

A special parliamentary board in charge of overseeing the city council polls had qualified 2,700 plus hopefuls for Tehran.

The returns for the capital released Sunday put all the 21 hopefuls in the 'Hope' list compiled by the Reformist Policymaking Council far ahead of their principlist rivals. 

On top of the list is Mohsen Hashemi, son of former president, the late Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, with the second and third being former Tehran mayor Morteza Alviri and former culture minister Ahmad Masjed-Jamei, IRNA reported.

The members of the principlist list dubbed "Service" were lagging behind, with their top hopeful Mehdi Chamran, the current chairman of the council, ranking 22nd. 

The alliance also won a big victory in the 2016 Majlis elections and managed to break a chain of the three-time overwhelming dominance of principlists over the legislature.

City councils, known as local governments in some countries, are in charge of electing the mayor, supervising the municipality and approving its budget.

The victory of reformists and moderates means the job of the incumbent mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who has been in the post for 12 years, is now on the line. 

Qalibaf was running for president this year but withdrew in favor of fellow principlist Ebrahim Raeisi who lost the race and came second.  

Media speculations are rife that Hashemi, who has a long experience of working in the municipality as chairman of Tehran Metro, is likely to be the new mayor.

The council comprises of 31 members, but according to a 2016 Majlis enactment, the next council will have 10 fewer seats.