After 14 years of ruling Tehran, Principlists have relinquished power to Reformists, giving the mayorship and chairmanship of the city council to their rivals.

On Aug. 21, Tehran City Council members decided to elect Mohsen Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former head of Tehran’s subway system and son of late two-time President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, as head of the council, and Mohammad Ali Najafi, a former economic adviser of moderate President Hassan Rouhani, as the mayor.

In the last two decades, Tehran mayors have both stirred controversy and used the post as a stepping stone to the presidency. Hard-line Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected as Tehran mayor in 2003 by the then-conservative council, ran in the 2005 presidential election, which led to his landslide victory. Moreover, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, whose mayorship lasted for the past 12 years, unsuccessfully ran for the presidency twice after taking charge of the management of the capital (2013 and 2017). He also ran for office in 2005.

Ghalibaf was subject to many accusations of misconduct, including sales of public property at below-market prices to his allies and municipality directors. Instead of putting him under scrutiny, the previous conservative-dominated city council was accused of fully cooperating with Ghalibaf. Mehdi Chamran — an ally of Ghalibaf — was the chairman of Tehran’s city council for 14 years, a man who played a crucial role in Ahmadinejad’s rise to seniority and a figure who is also seen as the man behind keeping Ghalibaf in power in Tehran for 12 years.