Iranian City and Village Councils elections, 2006

The Iranian City and Village Councils election of 2006 took place on December 15, 2006. People elected representatives for City and Village Councils, who in their turn elected the mayors.

The elections happened on the same day as the election for the Assembly of Experts.

Candidates

Every city and village in the country elected representatives. Iran's 46.5 million eligible voters elected about 233,000 candidates for more than 113,000 city and rural council posts. [cite web|url=http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-12-15T113254Z_01_L15713249_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-ELECTIONS.xml&pageNumber=1&imageid=&c

title=Iran votes in elections seen as test for Ahmadinejad|date=2006-12-15|accessdate=2006-12-21|author=Reuters]

Tehran's candidates, as the largest city in the country and the capital, included more famous candidates. These included former politicians Mohammad Ali Najafi (former Vice President under Mohammad Khatami and Minister of Education under Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani), Ahmad Masjed-Jamei (former Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance under Khatami), Masoumeh Ebtekar (former Vice President under Khatami and spokeswoman of Iranian students in Iran hostage crisis); sportsmen Hadi Saei (Taekwondo athlete and gold medalist in 2004 Summer Olympics), Rasoul Khadem (wrestler and gold medalist in 1996 Summer Olympics) and Alireza Dabir (wrestler and gold medalist in 2000 Summer Olympics); and even Parvin Ahmadinejad, sister of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Also notable is that the reformist parties reached a consensus to have a unified list of candidates for the election, contrary to the previous election where every reformist party had a separate list, some not even sharing a single candidate.

Voting results

A general tabulation of all of the elections in various cities and villages is not available, but results for Tehran City Council is used by some a general representative. Of 1,656,558 votes counted until 2006-12-21, the official results had noted the following as the first fifteen candidates (the same number that would be elected): [cite web|url=http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-848194&Lang=P|title=The final list of 21 first people getting the most votes for Tehran city council (فهرست نهایی ۲۱ نفر اول حائزان بیشترین آرای شورای شهر تهران)|author=ISNA|date=2006-12-21|accessdate=2006-12-21|language=Persian] These fifteen candidates were later confirmed elected as the new Tehran City councillors. [ [http://www.middle-east-online.com/English/?id=18885 Ahmadinejad Tehran defeat confirmed] , "Middle East Online", 2006-12-21 ]

Other cities

Partial results about other cities indicate:

* In Isfahan, Ahmadinejad's supporters won three out of 11 seats
* In Tabriz, Ahmadinejad's supporters won four out of 16 seats
* In Qom, Ahmadinejad's supporters won three out of 9 seats
* In Shiraz, Ahmadinejad's supporters won one out of 11 seats
* In Ardabil, Ahmadinejad's supporters won one out of 9 seats [ [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/8b021d30-8de7-11db-ae0e-0000779e2340.html Ahmadi-Nejad suffers vote setback in Iran] , "Financial Times", 2006-12-17 ]

Controversy about the results

The reformist candidates have stated that the Ministry of Interior's lateness in announcing the temporary results, and not announcing any temporary results for two days after the end of the election have been contrary to the norms and that normally the results had been announced gradually as the vote counting were under progress. They have also claimed fraud in counting the votes, mentioning lost vote boxes [cite web|url=http://www.shahrefarda.com/showtext.php?id=543|title=10 boxes were lost (‏۱۰ صندوق گم شد)|language=Persian|date=2006-12-17|accessdate=2006-12-21] and newly found boxes that reported zero votes for the reformist candidates. [cite web|url=http://www.shahrefarda.com/showtext.php?id=581|title=Five new boxes entered the vote counting site four days after the end of voting (پنج صندوق جدید، چهار روز پس از پایان رأی‌گیری به سایت شمارش آرا وارد شد)|language=Persian|date=2006-12-20|accessdate=2006-12-21]

References and notes

External links

* [http://www.citymayors.com/politics/iran_elections_06.html 'Iranian President suffers defeat in local elections', CityMayors, 21 December 2006]
* [http://www.roozonline.com/english/archives/2006/12/001171.php Impressive Performance of Women in City Council Elections]