Al Monitor - The Tehran mayorship is a controversial position. Over the past 12 years, mayors have sought to run for the presidency — a dream that came true for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005.


The current mayor, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, is a conservative who has unsuccessfully tried his luck in presidential elections three times. Besides his various alleged violations of the law, Ghalibaf has been under fire from Reformists who have accused him of using the municipality’s budget for campaigning purposes. These attacks and criticisms weren’t enough to force Ghalibaf out of the municipality, which he has headed since 2005, as conservatives held the majority in the Tehran City Council and supported him through the ups and downs. But now, with Reformists winning all seats in the May 2017 election for the Tehran City Council, Ghalibaf is on his way out.

At first, media outlets reported that Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, the son of the late two-time president, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was set to assume the mayorship. But the Reformists opposed such a move, even as the younger Hashemi obtained a record-breaking number of votes, more than 1.8 million, in the May 19 polls. The Reformists referred to an internal agreement reached before the election in which Reformist candidates agreed not to leave the council for another job if elected. Of note, to become mayor, city council members must leave the council. While causing division, the Reformists finally pressured Hashemi not to run for mayor.

On July 19, members of the incoming Tehran City Council held a meeting to choose a new mayor. In the first minutes of the session, Hashemi announced he wouldn’t run in order to enhance the unity among Reformists on the city council. The council members proposed 24 names for heading the municipality. Following an internal ballot on the same day, the list was narrowed down to the seven following people:

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