Early Election Results: Reformists Dominate Tehran City Council

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday morning, governor of Tehran Issa Farhadi said the votes from more than 60 percent of the polling stations have been counted, based on which the 21-memebr list is leading by a wide margin.

The preliminary results indicate that more than 3.6 million people in Tehran, excluding residents of two urban areas, have cast their ballots in the City and Village Councils elections, he added, saying the voter turnout has increased by around 900,000 people compared to the previous round four years ago.

The figures show that all candidates belonging to a 21-memebr list with reformist political views are leading in the polls.

Prominent figures of the list include the front-runner, Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, the son of Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president and chairman of the country’s Expediency Council who died in January.

Results of the ballot count also indicate that the second and third places have gone to Morteza Alviri and Ahmad Masjed-Jame’ee. The latter currently holds a seat in Tehran City Council.

Other independent or principlist candidates are trailing behind the 21-memebr list.

According to the results, Mahdi Chamran, the incumbent chair of Tehran’s City Council is taking the 22nd place, 267,000 votes short of winning a seat in the council for four more years.

On Sunday morning, Ali Asghar Ahmadi, the head of the Interior Ministry's State Elections Committee, said the final results of the City Council elections in Tehran are going to be released by the evening.

The 5th City and Village Councils elections across Iran were held simultaneously with the presidential election on Friday.

According to Article 7 of the Iranian Constitution, the local councils, together with the parliament, are “decision-making and administrative organs of the State”.