2017 Tehran City Council election

Islamic City Council of Tehran election, 2017

← 2013 19 May 2017 2021 →

21 City Council seats
11 seats needed for a majority
Alliance Reformists Conservatives
Seats won
15 / 15
0 / 15
List Hope Service

Chairman before election

Mehdi Chamran
Conservative

Elected Chairman

Mohsen Hashemi
Reformist

An election to the Islamic City Council of Tehran took place on 19 May 2017, along with the local elections nationwide.

The council is elected by the plurality-at-large voting system. This election saw losses for the Principlists and the Reformists gained all 21 seats.

More than 3.6 million voters turned out in the election, setting a record.[1]

Campaign

In January 2017, reformists started working with moderates and supporters of Hassan Rouhani to compile a shared electoral list of candidates for City Council of Tehran.[2] In April 2017, the Moderation and Development Party joined the Reformists' Supreme Council for Policymaking,[3] the body responsible for picking the candidates included in the list.[4] The final list under the brand name The List of Hope, drew criticism from reformists[4] but was eventually endorsed by Mohammad Khatami. It included only 2 out of the 13 incumbent reformist councilors[5] and several well-known reformist figures were not included. Some reform-minded non-partisans were also expected to feature in the list, including whistleblower Yashar Soltani, social activists Leila Arshad and Ameneh Shirafkan, and Taraneh Yalda, a cityplanner.[6][7] As a result, two other lists emerged: Omīd-e Eṣlāḥāṭ (Persian: امید اصلاحات, lit.'Reforms' Hope'), partially made up of the incumbent reformist councilors and Šaḥr-e Dīgar (Persian: شهر دیگر, lit.'Alternative City') by independent activists.[8]

The conservative camp and its newly established umbrella organization Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces that supported the incumbent mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, unanimously endorsed the list published under the name Ḵedmaṭ (Persian: خدمت, lit.'Service').[4][9]

Several candidates who were initially approved, including former Islamic Iran Participation Front MP Ali Tajernia, Office for Strengthening Unity activist Abdollah Momeni and Emad Behavar of the Freedom Movement of Iran among others, were declared disqualified after Revolutionary Guards Intelligence agency reportedly forced the Central Election Supervisory Board.[10]

Results

# Candidate Electoral list Votes
21 Sitting Members
1 Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani Hope 1,756,086
2 Morteza Alviri Hope 1,411,068
3 Ahmad Masjed-Jamei (i) Hope 1,405,994
4 Shahrbanoo Amani Hope 1,296,657
5 Mohammad-Javad Haghshenas Hope 1,288,611
6 Bahareh Arvin Hope 1,285,237
7 Ebrahim Amini Hope 1,265,868
8 Afshin Habibzadeh Hope 1,232,947
9 Arash Milani Hope 1,230,722
10 Hassan Khalilabadi Hope 1,228,477
11 Ali A'ta Hope 1,216,209
12 Zahra Nouri Hope 1,206,159
13 Mohammad Salari (i) Hope 1,188,874
14 Hassan Rasouli Hope 1,186,602
15 Nahid Khodakarami Hope 1,172,782
16 Majid Farahani Hope 1,171,609
17 Zahra Nejadbahram Hope 1,133,048
18 Mahmoud Mirlohi Hope 1,121,237
19 Elham Fakhari Hope 1,112,126
20 Mohammad Alikhani Hope 1,070,025
21 Bashir Nazari Hope 1,066,813
11 Alternate Members
22 Mehdi Chamran (i) Service 656,136
23 Alireza Dabir (i) Service 528,603
24 Habib Kashani (i) Service 473,488
25 Morteza Talaie (i) Service 468,428
26 Jalal Maleki Service 455,286
27 Elaheh Rastgou (i) Service 444,635
28 Mohsen Pirhadi (i) Service 442,233
29 Parviz Sorouri (i) Service 407,269
30 Eghbal Shakeri (i) Service 381,183
31 Zohreh Lajevardi Service 368,748
32 Reza Taghipour (i) Service 368,683
Defeated
33 Mojtaba Shakeri (i) Service 365,767
34 Gholamreza Ghasemian Service 364,081
35 Hadi Zakeri Service 363,041
36 Hamzeh Shakib Service 352,103
37 Abdolmoghim Nassehi (i) Service 349,833
38 Ali Riaz Service 346,382
39 Mehdi Eghrarian Service 339,740
40 Soudeh Najafi Service 339,248
41 Abolfazl Ghana'ati (i) Service 337,872
42 Babak Negaahdari Service 317,966
43 Yashar Soltani Alternative City 256,424
44 Hossein Raghfar Alternative City 131,207
45 Mohammad-Mehdi Tondgouyan (i) Reforms' Hope 128,604
46 Mohsen Sorkhou (i) Reforms' Hope 109,167
47 Esmaeil Dousti (i) Reforms' Hope 92,711
48 Ahmad Hakimipour (i) Reforms' Hope 91,024
49 Mohammad-Ali Zam Reforms' Hope 79,154
50 Hadi Saei (i) 66,446
51 Alireza Alikhani 57,267
52 Abbas Jadidi (i) 56,395
53 Fatemeh Daneshvar (i) Reforms' Hope 51,400
54 Ahmad Donyamali (i) Service & Change 45,737
55 Hossein Allahkaram 37,279
56 Meysam Mozaffar Service & Change 36,981
57 Ameneh Shirafkan Alternative City 33,739
58 Khosro Salehi Alternative City 32,975
59 Hossein Rezazadeh (i) 32,743
60 Touraj Farhadi Service & Change 28,775
61 Taraneh Yalda 24,528
62 Rasoul Jama'ati 24,047
63 Mohammad Aalikhani 18,151
64 Mohammad Shahi-Arablou 16,366
65 Ali Alikhani 14,385
66 Alireza Faghani 13,158
67 Seyyed Manaaf Hashemi 13,085
68 Afsaneh Eghbalnia Reforms' Hope 12,785
69 Jafar Salari 12,512
70 Mohammad-Javad Mirghavami 12,275
71 Andranik Simoni Alternative City 11,702
72 Ali Nozarpour Reforms' Hope 10,156
73 Jalil Nikzad-Samarin 9,432
74 Mahmoud Alizadeh-Tabatabaei Reforms' Hope 9,372
75 Masoud Hashemi 9,037
Invalid/blank votes Undeclared
Total Votes ≈3,600,000
Source: Ministry of Interior (Total Votes)

References

  1. ^ "Pro-reform candidates capture all council seats in Tehran", Tehran Times, 22 May 2017, retrieved 14 August 2017
  2. ^ "'Moderates, reformists to agree on common list for council elections'", Tehran Times, 4 January 2017, retrieved 14 January 2017
  3. ^ "Moderation party joins reformist policy-making council", Tehran Times, 10 April 2017, retrieved 14 April 2017
  4. ^ a b c "Aref Defends Tehran City Council List of Candidates", Financial Tribune, 13 May 2017, retrieved 14 May 2017
  5. ^ Aida Ghajar (24 May 2017), "Reformists Turn the Tide in Tehran", Iran Wire, retrieved 24 May 2017
  6. ^ Ramin Mostaghim; Shashank Bengali (9 May 2017), "Pedestrian walkways, bike lanes, green spaces: An unusual election platform for a politician in Iran", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 1 June 2017
  7. ^ "Iran's Other Elections: Local Council Applicants Subjected to Arbitrary Vetting", Center for Human Rights in Iran, 27 April 2017, retrieved 14 May 2017
  8. ^ Niusha Saremi (17 May 2017), "اصلاح‌طلبان و بحرانی به نام لیست واحد برای انتخابات شورای شهر", BBC Persian (in Persian), retrieved 17 May 2017
  9. ^ "Vetting bodies verify results of city council election in Tehran", Islamic Republic News Agency, 28 May 2017, retrieved 28 May 2017
  10. ^ "Interference in Local Elections: Approved Candidates Now Disqualified", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 12 May 2017, retrieved 1 June 2017