Political tug-of-war continues over election of new
Tehran mayor
TEHRAN, May 30 (AFP) - Tehran's 15-member municipal council on Sunday
continued its tug-of-war over the choice of a new mayor for the Iranian
capital, although officially the issue was not on the day's agenda.
"We have continued our discussions with Behzad Nabavi," spokeswoman
of the city council Sadiqeh Vasmaqi said.
Behzad Nabavi, minister of heavy industry during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq
war, is one of the leading radical leftist personalities of the Islamic
regime. Founder of the Islamic Revolution Mojahedeen party, Nabavi is a
close ally of moderate President Mohammad Khatami.
"We will announce the new mayor as soon as we have reached a final
result," Vasmaqi said, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.
The appointment of a new mayor for Tehran, one of the world largest
capitals, was postponed twice last week. The Iranian press reported serious
disagreements among council members, who are all members of a pro-Khatami
coalition, but stem from different factions.
The council first postponed the election Sunday, officially because
of the participation of councillors in a ceremony in Tehran marking the
second anniversary of Khatami's election as president.
The municipal council has to find a replacement for the former mayor,
Gholamhossein Karbaschi, who started serving a two-year jail sentence for
corruption this month.
Karbaschi lost his job last year when he was charged with corruption
in a case which he and other leading reformers claimed was brought by his
conservative political opponents to weaken the Khatami government.
The council was elected in Iran's first ever municipal polls in February,
and can choose a mayor from outside its own membership.
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