Iranian City and Village Councils elections, 2003
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905 City and 34,205 Village Councils |
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| Registered | 41,501,783 | |||
| Turnout | 49.96% | |||
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Mohsen Beheshti-Seresht
Reformists
Mansour Roshanasi
Reformists
Iranian City and Village Councils elections, 2003 took place in February 2003, the second time local elections for city and village councils had taken place since being introduced in 1999, and 905 city and 34,205 village councils were up for election.
By the elections, conservatives made a comeback and won the majority of the seats nationally as a harbinger of the 2004 parliamentary elections, where they won decisively.
The elections demonstrated a voter apathy among the urban citizens, as a result of public disappointment with reformists and constant political infighting which led to the dissolution of the reformist-dominated City Council of Tehran.
There were 20,235,898 casted votes in this election, marking the lowest turnout in 24 years. In Tehran, only 12% of eligible voters participated. Turnout in Isfahan and Mashhad showed similar rates, 12% and 15% respectively.
Disqualifications were minimal and below the 10%, to the extent that the banned Freedom Movement of Iran and Nationalist–Religious activists secured a few candidates as independents.
In early 2000's, main camp of Principlists started lights-off works to take the power from Reformists. They established an umbrella organization for 2003 elections under the name of Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran. Tehran's election campaign of Builders headed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In some Provincial capitals, they used other name such as Āfṭāb (Persian: آفتاب, lit. 'Sun') or Sahand (Persian: سهند) for their election campaigns. Builders decisively won the election in Tehran.
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Wikipedia