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 Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

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 In political science, political apathy is a lack of interest or apathy towards politics. This includes voter apathy, information apathy and lack of interest in elections, political events, public meetings, and voting. Voter apathy is a lack of ...

among the urban citizens, as a result of public disappointment with

reformists Reformism is a political tendency advocating the reform of an existing system or institution – often a political establishment , political or religion , religious establishment – as opposed to its abolition and replacement via revolution. ...

and constant political infighting which led to the dissolution of the reformist-dominated

City Council of Tehran The Islamic City Council of Tehran () is the directly elected council that presides over the city of Tehran, elects the mayor of Tehran in a mayor–council government system, and budgets of the Municipality of Tehran. The council is composed ...

. There were 20,235,898 votes cast in this election, marking the lowest turnout in 24 years. In

Tehran Tehran (; , ''Tehrân'') is the capital and largest city of Iran. It is the capital of Tehran province, and the administrative center for Tehran County and its Central District (Tehran County), Central District. With a population of around 9. ...

, only 12% of eligible voters participated. Turnout in

Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...

and

Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. ...

showed similar rates, 12% and 15% respectively. Disqualifications were minimal and below the 10%, to the extent that the banned

Freedom Movement of Iran The Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI) or Liberation Movement of Iran (LMI; ) is an Iranian pro-democracy political organization founded in 1961, by members describing themselves as "Muslims, Iranians, Constitutionalists and Mossadeghists". It is th ...

and Nationalist–Religious activists secured a few candidates as independents.

Campaign

In the early 2000s, main camp of

Principlists The Principlists (, ), also interchangeably known as the Iranian Conservatives Open access material licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. and formerly referred to as the Right or Right-win ...

started lights-off works to take the power from

Reformists Reformism is a political tendency advocating the reform of an existing system or institution – often a political establishment , political or religion , religious establishment – as opposed to its abolition and replacement via revolution. ...

. They established an umbrella organization for 2003 elections under the name of

Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran The Alliance of Builders or Developers of Islamic Iran (; ), usually shortened to Abadgaran (), was an Iranian conservative political federation of parties and organizations. Described as "Iran's neocons", main groups within the alliance were ...

's election campaign of Builders headed by

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on 28 October 1956) is an Iranian Iranian principlists, principlist and Iranian nationalism, nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a mem ...

. In some Provincial capitals, they used other name such as ''Āfṭāb'' () or ''Sahand'' () for their election campaigns. Builders decisively won the election in Tehran.

Results

According to ''Panjereh Weekly'',

won 64% of the seats nationwide.

Turnout

References

{{Iranian elections

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 2003 elections in Iran February 2003 in Iran