Tehran municipal management should seize political consistency

By  Trend

The newly-installed management of the city of Tehran should seize the fact that they all share the same political viewpoint, a senior municipal management expert told Trend August 28.

"The only thing that remains to be done now is for them (the city council and municipality) to stand unified and do the job correctly," Mohammad Ali Pournia said.

"They should put aside political biases, because we already have enough political organizations. The new mayor and the city council should first inspect what has been done in the previous 12-year tenure, and then start to build upon it rather than discard it entirely, because doing so would be a dire betrayal of the interests and hopes of people who voted for the council."

Pournia added that although there have been shortcomings from the tenure of former mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, there have been noticeable services that should not go neglected.

"No one can deny the fact that the previous municipality management has rendered some good services to the city, regarding subway transport system, new constructions, environmental projects, etc. The new management should improve upon these rather than deny them," the expert said.

On August 28, new members of the City Council of Tehran elected Mohammad Ali Najafi as the mayor of the metropolis by a unanimous vote on Wednesday.

Najafi, 66, is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Affiliated with the ‘reformist’ political party, Najafi used to serve as the Minister of Education and the Minister of Culture in various administrations.

He also took the helm at Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) during President Rouhani’s first term, but resigned after six months.

After 14 years of ruling Tehran, conservatives (called principlists in Iran) relinquished power to reformists following city council elections held on May 19.

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.