Islamic City Council of Tehran

"Tehran City Council" redirects here. For the former institution, see Tehran City Council (1968–1979).

The Islamic City Council of Tehran (Persian: شورای اسلامی شهر تهران) is the directly elected council that presides over the city of Tehran, elects the mayor of Tehran in a mayor–council government system, and budgets of the Municipality of Tehran.

Islamic City Council of Tehran
Local council of Greater Tehran
Type
Term limits	4 years[1]
History
Founded	29 April 1999; 26 years ago (1999-04-29)[1]
Preceded by	Anjoman-e-Shahr
New session started	5 August 2021
Leadership
Chairman	Mehdi Chamran since 5 August 2021
Vice Chairman	Parviz Sorouri since 5 August 2021
1st Secretary	Jafar Bandi Sharabiani since 5 August 2021
2nd Secretary	Sodeh Najafi since 5 August 2021
Spokesperson	Alireza Nadali since 22 August 2021
Treasurer	Habib Kashani since 21 September 2021
Structure
Seats	21 (Since 2017) 15 (1999–2013) 31 (2013–2017)
Political groups	CCIRF (21)
Committees	List Planning and Budget Health and Urban Services Transportation and Civil Sociocultural Supervision and Legal Affairs Urban Planning and Architecture
Authority	Tehran, Rey, Tajrish
Elections
Voting system	Plurality-at-large voting
First election	26 February 1999
Last election	18 June 2021
Next election	2025
Meeting place
City Council Building Behesht Street Tehran
Website
Tehran City Council Website

The council is composed of twenty-one members elected on a plurality-at-large voting basis for four-year terms. The chairman and the deputy chairman of the council are chosen by the council at the first regular meeting in odd-numbered years.

It holds regular meetings on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 10 am (except on holidays or if decided by special resolution not to meet).

History

See also: Tehran City Council (1968–1979)

The Persian Constitutional Revolution passed a law on local governance known as "Ghanoon-e Baladieh". The second and third articles of the law, on "anjoman-e baladieh", or the city council, provide a detailed outline on issues such as the role of the councils in the city, the members' qualifications, the election process, and the requirements to be entitled to vote. Baladieh, or the modern municipality in Iran was established in 1910, to cope with the growing need for the transformation of Tehran's city structures.^[2]

After the First World War, Reza Shah, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, immediately suspended the "Ghanoon-e Baladieh" of 1907 and the decentralized and autonomous city councils were replaced by centralist/sectoralist approaches of governance and planning.^[2]

Members

As of August 2023, the council is led by Mehdi Chamran, who was re-elected as chairman, and Parviz Sorouri, who holds the position of vice chairman. Soudeh Najafi and Jafar Sharbiani were appointed as the secretaries of the council's presiding board.^[3]

Previous members

Main article: List of members of City Council of Tehran

Chairpersons

No.	Term	Portrait	Chairman	Affiliation		Term of office	Vice Chairman		Affiliation		Term of office
1	1st		Abdollah Noori		Combatant Clerics	April 1999 — September 1999		Saeed Hajjarian		Participation Front	April 1999 — February 2002
2			Abbas Douzdouzani		Participation Front	September 1999 — December 1999
3			Rahmatollah Khosravi		Forces of Imam's Line	December 1999 — May 2001
4			Mohammad Atrianfar		Executives of Construction	May 2001 — January 2003
								Ebrahim Asgharzadeh		Solidarity Party	February 2002 — January 2003
5	2nd		Mehdi Chamran		Alliance of Builders	April 2003 — September 2013		Hassan Bayadi		Alliance of Builders	April 2003 — September 2013
	3rd
6	4th		Ahmad Masjed-Jamei		Non-partisan Reformist	September 2013 — September 2014		Morteza Talaie		Progress and Justice Population	September 2013 — August 2017
(5)			Mehdi Chamran		Non-partisan Principlist	September 2014 — August 2017
pro tem	5th		Morteza Alviri		Executives of Construction	May — August 2017		Ahmad Masjed-Jamei		Non-partisan Reformist	May — August 2017
7			Mohsen Hashemi		Executives of Construction	August 2017 — August 2021		Ebrahim Amini		National Trust Party	August 2017 — August 2021
(5)	6th		Mehdi Chamran		Non-partisan Principlist	August 2021 — Present		Parviz Sorouri		Society of Pathseekers	August 2021 — Present

Composition

Election results

Make-up of Tehran City Council

Faction	Seats
	1999[4]	2003[4]	2006[5]	2013[6]	2017[7]	2021
Reformists	15 / 15	0 / 15	4 / 15	13 / 31	21 / 21	0 / 21
Principlists	0 / 15	14 / 15	10 / 15	18 / 31	0 / 21	21 / 21
Independent	0 / 15	1 / 15	1 / 15	2 / 31	0 / 21	0 / 21
Nationalist-Religious	—	0 / 15	—

Timeline

No.	Date	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31
1	1999-04-29[a]	R															—
	2000-01-03[b]	R														I
	2003-01-15[c]	Vacant
2	2003-04-29[a]	I	C
	2006-12-06[d]	C
3[e]	2007-04-29[a]	R				I	C
	2009-02-07[f]	R				C
	2013-06-06[g]	R			I	C
	2013-08-25[h]	R		I	C
4	2013-09-03[a]	R													I	D[i]	I	C
	2013-09-08[j]	R												I	D[i]	I	C
5	2017-08-23[a]	R																					—
6	2021-08-05[a]	C																					—
New term's mandate started. Three members –Abdollah Nouri (R), Jamileh Kadivar (R) and Mohammad Gharazi (R)– resigned and were replaced by alternative members Mohammad-Hossein Haghighi (R), Amir Abedini (I) and Mansour Razavi (R). The council was dissolved by the Ministry of Interior Rasoul Khadem who won a seat without conservative endorsement, was included in their list for 2006 election. Third term's mandate was extended for two additional years by the Parliament. Progress and Justice Population of Islamic Iran was officially established and Alireza Dabir who won a seat without conservative endorsement joined it. Hadi Saei who won a seat with reformist endorsement was not included in their list for 2013 election. Mohammad-Ali Najafi (R) resigned and was replaced by alternative member Abdolmoghim Nasehi (C). Ahmad Donyamali won a seat with endorsement from both reformists and conservatives. Donyamali was a member of the reformist fraction for the last three years but voted independently. Elaheh Rastgou who won a seat with reformist endorsement, switched her allegiance to the conservatives.

Mayors elected

See also: Mayor of Tehran § Mayors elected by City Council

#	Mayor elected	Votes	Year	Term
1	Morteza Alviri	15 / 15(100%)	1999	1st
2	Mohammad Hassan Malekmadani	12 / 15(80%)	2002
3	Mahmoud Ahmadinejad	12 / 15(80%)	2003	2nd
4	Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf	8 / 15(53%)	2005
		8 / 15(53%)	2007	3rd
		16 / 31(52%)	2013	4th
5	Mohammad-Ali Najafi	21 / 21(100%)	2017	5th
6	Mohammad-Ali Afshani	19 / 21(90%)	2018
7	Pirouz Hanachi	11 / 21(52%)	2018
8	Alireza Zakani	18 / 21(86%)	2021	6th

See also

• Milad Tower