Tehran City Council appointed Mohammad Ali Najafi as the new mayor of the Iranian capital city, Mehr reported.

During a July 19 session of Tehran City Council, seven candidates succeeded to win the necessary votes to compete for the post of mayor in Tehran, in which 66-year-old Mohammad Ali Najafi secured the highest number of votes, 21.

The pro-reform figure earlier served as the education minister, vice president and head of the Budget and Planning Organization.

Najafi will replace Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a conservative politician and critic of the Rouhani administration. </s> Mohhamad-Ali Najafi has been elected Thursday as Tehran mayor following a vote at the City Council as the Iranian capital city faces challenges ranging from traffic to air pollution.

Initially, there were seven candidates for the Tehran’s mayoral post, but the number was reduced to two after resignations.

The candidates had presented their programs for the city’s management to the council’s members and answered their questions.

Najafi, a reformist politician who had served for nine years as Iran’s education minister, will replace current Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, who held the post for 12 years.

Najafi will begin his official four-year term as mayor on September 6 after the first session of the 5th Tehran City Council and another voting session.

Iranian people chose members of the 21-seat Tehran’s City Council in the May city and village council elections, which were held concurrent with the presidential poll. </s> The city council in Iran’s capital on Tuesday elected Pirouz Hanachi, a little-known technocrat, to the politically sensitive post of mayor, state television said. Hanachi is the third mayor of Tehran to be elected by the city council since reformists swept to power in local polls in May 2017. Hanachi, 54, was a deputy mayor after the reformists took office in August 2017. The Interior Ministry has yet to confirm his election, a mostly procedural process. The reformists have promised transparency in running the city following corruption charges against their conservative rivals who controlled the Tehran council for 14 years, AFP said. The post, which has changed hands three times in 18 months, had served as a political springboard for conservative hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president between 2005 and 2013. Another officeholder, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, was unsuccessful in his bids for the presidency. </s> The Tehran city council has elected a little-known technocrat to the politically sensitive post of mayor, Iranian state media report.

Pirouz Hanachi, 54, is the third mayor of Tehran to be elected since reformists swept the city-council elections in May 2017.

Hanachi's selection needs to be approved by the Interior Ministry within 10 days in a mostly procedural process.

Hanachi, an architecture professor at Tehran University, has previously served as deputy minister at the Roads and Urban Development Ministry.

He replaces Mohammad Ali Afshani, who came out of retirement to take the mayor's position in May but had to give up office after a law adopted in September banned retirees from holding official posts.

Afshani's predecessor, Mohammad Ali Najafi, who became mayor following the May 2017 polls, resigned in March citing health concerns.

With reporting by AP and AFP
Reformist candidate Mohammad-Ali Najafi is unanimously elected Mayor of Tehran by the city council, ending the 12-year tenure of Principlist Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf.