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).
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
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(October 2021)
^ abAhmad 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.
^ ab"Iran election 'an alarm bell'". BBC. 3 March 2003. Retrieved 1 April 2017. Reformists took all 15 council seats in 1999. Conservatives have now taken 14.
^Raz Zimmt (22 December 2006). "Election Results for the Assembly of Experts and Local Councils: Preliminary Appraisal". ACIS Iran Pulse. Retrieved 1 April 2017. The results in Tehran give the list of Qalibaf's followers ("Usulgarayan") eight of the 15 seats, the reformists' four and Ahmadinejad's followers two. Another seat went to an independent candidate, close to Qalibaf.
^Ali M. Pedram (20 June 2013). "Reformists return to power in Iran's local elections". Asharq Al Awsat. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2017. Thirty-one council seats were up for grabs in Tehran, with 13 going to reformists. Although conservatives won 18 seats in the capital in total... Although the composition of Tehran's new city council appears to give conservatives a majority with 18 seats, four of these were won by previously apolitical celebrity athletes, who observers speculate may be open to changing their affiliation in the future.