Tehran city council in turmoil over calls to dismiss mayor

Allegations of bribery, poor performance, and electoral dishonesty against Tehran's ultra-hardliner mayor, Alireza Zakani, have sparked turmoil in the capital's City Council and led to demands for his dismissal.

Ten out of the twenty-four members of the council want Zakani to be sacked and are reportedly lobbying with the others to gain the required majority for unseating him.

A speech by Narjes Soleimani, daughter of the late Revolutionary Guards Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, at the council’s Sunday session has become the focal point of the controversies.

In her speech, Soleimani who heads the Council’s monitoring committee questioned Zakani’s performance in the past three years, and referring to his candidacy in the recent snap presidential elections, said the capital needed a mayor who “did not constantly yearn to be somewhere else”.

The conflict among the councilors is deeply rooted in the political rivalry between Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf and Saeed Jalili, who has close ties to the ultra-hardliner Paydari (Steadfastness) Party and its ally, Jebhe-ye Sobh-e Iran (Iran Morning Front).

Zakani withdrew his candidacy in Jalili’s favor before the election causing accusations that he became a candidate only to assist Jalili as his attack dog against other candidates in the debates.

Zakani repeatedly claimed before the elections and during the debates that he had ended the municipality's rampant corruption that had flourished during his predecessors’ tenures.

However, fresh allegations have surfaced about widespread corruption in Zakani's administration. Referring to allegations of bribery in the Municipality, Soleimani said the mayor had seriously failed the council in remedying deep-rooted corruption. She had earlier told the reformist Ham Mihan newspaper that there were numerous reports of bribery and that the Council had launched an investigation into the matter.

Last week, a pro-Ghalibaf journalist published a video clip in which a municipality manager, identified only by his last name, Afsouni, accused Zakani’s adviser, Saeed Sadrzadeh, of demanding 400 gold coins and $450,000 to secure him the position of development deputy for District One of Tehran, the city's most affluent area.

The allegation, that no municipality official has so far denied, sparked a new wave of popular support for a petition launched in March for Zakani’s dismissal and a counter-petition by his supporters that urges him “not to yield” to political rivals’ pressure.

Zakani’s tenure as Mayor of the capital has been plagued by several major controversies in the past few months including an outcry over his plans to construct mosques in public parks and a secretly concluded $2 billion agreement with a Chinese firm to import transport and traffic surveillance equipment. Soleimani was among the councilors who strongly criticized the deal.

Some critics have alleged that these mosques are meant to serve as Basij militia bases and facilitate their suppression of protesters across the capital. Zakani insists that details of the Chinese deal cannot be made public for national security reasons.

Narjes Soleimani who is married to Abouzar Khazraei, the former editor of the municipality-owned Tehran Emrouz newspaper and a close ally of Ghalibaf has come under fire from Zakani’s supporters some of whom accuse her of “betraying” her father by taking Ghalibaf’s side.

Soleimani, who was not a politician, ran in the council elections in 2020, apparently despite the strong objection of some family members including her sister, brother, and paternal uncle. She came third with around 350,000 votes.

Since 2012, Soleimani has been a member of a charity founded by Ghalibaf’s wife Zahra Moshirolestekhareh. The controversial charity of which Soleimani’s husband is a CEO was itself at the center of a land grab and corruption case in 2021.