Tehran City Council: The Decision to Reduce Council Members is 'Hasty and Unprofessional'

Tehran City Council representatives reacted to the parliament's decision to reduce the members of the capital's city council, calling the proposal 'hasty and unprofessional' and expressing hope that the Guardian Council would annul this decision. The Islamic Consultative Assembly approved a new framework on Tuesday, October 5, which reduces the number of main members of the Tehran City Council to 21, with 10 alternate members. According to clause 'T' of Article 6 of the amendment to the Islamic Councils Law for Cities and Villages, approved on May 21, 1996, the Tehran City Council currently has 31 main members and 12 alternate members, thus the number of main members will decrease by 10. In response to this decision, Rahmatollah Hafezi, head of the Health, Environment, and Urban Services Commission of the Tehran City Council, stated that justice must also be considered in 'political and electoral dimensions,' noting that while there is one representative for every 10,000 people in other cities, 'in Tehran, there is one representative for every 350,000 people.' He called for the Guardian Council to intervene based on justice, the constitution, and global experiences. Ahmad Hakimipour, another member of the Tehran City Council, criticized the 'eight amendments' to the councils' law as unworthy of the legislative process and reminded that 'it would have been better to consult the City Council on this matter.' Several other members of the Tehran City Council, including Ismail Doosti, Abolfazl Ghanai, Mohammad Haqani, and Iqbal Shakri, also expressed hope that the Guardian Council would reject this 'unprofessional and hasty' decision. The changes are not limited to Tehran. The proposal approved by the parliament, if ultimately confirmed by the Guardian Council, will not only reduce the members of the Tehran City Council but will also affect the composition of councils in all cities. In the new plan, the number of council members in cities with populations over two million will also decrease by 10 to 15 members. Councils in cities with populations between one and two million will have only 13 members instead of 21, and the number of members in cities with populations between 500,000 and one million will decrease from 15 to 11. These changes will similarly affect cities with populations under 500,000. The population estimation criteria and the subsequent determination of the number of members are based on the latest census of population and housing. There have been no reports yet on the reactions of Islamic councils in other cities to the parliament's new decision, but in Tehran, Mehdi Chamran, the head of the City Council, has assigned three members of this council to send a letter opposing the parliament's decision to the Guardian Council and the office of the Supreme Leader after a 'technical review of the issue.'