2006 Iranian local elections

2006 Iranian City and Village Islamic Councils elections

15 December 2006 (2006-12-15)

Alliance Principlists Reformists Provincial capitals per Hamshahri[1] 155 / 257 (60%) 43 / 257 (17%) per Fars[2] 192 / 267 (72%) 75 / 267 (28%) per IRNA[3] 188 / 233 (81%) 41 / 233 (18%)

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.^[4]

Results

See also: 2006 Tehran City Council election

According The Financial Times, partial results about cities other than Tehran indicated:^[5]

• In Isfahan, Ahmadinejad's supporters won 3 out of 11 seats
• In Tabriz, Ahmadinejad's supporters won 4 out of 16 seats
• In Qom, Ahmadinejad's supporters won 3 out of 9 seats
• In Shiraz, Ahmadinejad's supporters won 1 out of 11 seats
• In Ardabil, Ahmadinejad's supporters won 1 out of 9 seats

Safdar Hosseini, the provincial campaign coordinator for the Reformists Coalition, claimed that the reformists had won most of the 1,524 seats for municipal councils in 265 cities and that most of the independents have "reformist leanings".^[6] According to him, the results were as follows:

Conservatives		Reformists	Independents	Ref
PSS	Others
52 / 1,524	438 / 1,524	605 / 1,524	429 / 1,524	[6]

The results in provincial capitals were reported by Iranian media as follows:

Conservatives		Reformists	Independents	Ref
PSS	Others
40 / 257	115 / 257	43 / 257	59 / 257	[1]
	188 / 233	41 / 233	5 / 233	[3]
40 / 267	152 / 267	75 / 267	—	[2]

Controversy about the results

The reformist candidates protested Ministry of Interior delays in announcing provisional results, and its failure to announce provisional results for two days after the end of the election. This contravened normal practice, where results were announced gradually as vote counting was under way. The candidates also claimed fraud in counting the votes, mentioning lost vote boxes^[7] and newly found boxes that reported zero votes for the reformist candidates.^[8]

References

1. Seyyed Masoud Razavi Faqih (17 March 2007), "تحلیلی بر انتخابات ۲۴ آذر", Hamshahri Online (in Persian), 17982, retrieved 6 September 2017
2. "گزارش اختصاصي فارس از گرايش منتخبين شوراها در مراكز استان‌ها: اصولگرايان و مستقل‌ها ۷۲ درصد كرسی شوراها در مركز استان‌ها را كسب كردند", Fars News Agency (in Persian), 17 December 2006, 8509260576, archived from the original on 16 April 2015, retrieved 6 September 2017
3. "آرايش سياسی منتخبان شوراها", Ebtekar newspaper (in Persian), no. 810, 19 December 2006, archived from the original on 16 April 2015, retrieved 6 September 2017 – via Islamic Republic News Agency and Fars News Agency
4. "Iran votes in elections seen as test for Ahmadinejad". Reuters. 2006-12-15. Archived from the original on 2007-02-16. Retrieved 2006-12-21.
5. "Ahmadi-Nejad suffers vote setback in Iran". Financial Times. 2006-12-17. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
6. "Iran Report", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, vol. 10, no. 1, 3 January 2007, retrieved 15 March 2021
7. "10 boxes were lost (‏۱۰ صندوق گم شد)" (in Persian). 2006-12-17. Retrieved 2006-12-21.
8. "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)" (in Persian). 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2006-12-21.

External links

• 'Iranian President suffers defeat in local elections', CityMayors, 21 December 2006
• Impressive Performance of Women in City Council Elections