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 that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

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, voter apathy is a lack of interest among voters in the elections of representative democracies. Voter apathy or lack of interest is often cited as a cause of low turnout among eligible voters in jurisdictions where v ...

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 The Islamic City Council of Tehran ( fa, شورای اسلامی شهر تهران) 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 Mu ...

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

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the Capital city, capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is th ...

, only 12% of eligible voters participated. Turnout in Isfahan and

Mashhad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province and has a po ...

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; fa, نهضت آزادی ايران, Nahżat-e āzādi-e Irān) is an Iranian pro-democracy political organization founded in 1961, by members describing themselves as "Muslim ...

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

Campaign

In the early 2000s, main camp of

Principlists The Principlists ( fa, اصول‌گرایان, Osul-Garāyān, ), also interchangeably known as the Iranian Conservatives Open access material licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. and form ...

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.

's election campaign of Builders headed by

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),

. In some Provincial capitals, they used other name such as ''Āfṭāb'' ( fa, آفتاب, lit=Sun) or ''Sahand'' ( fa, سهند) 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 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 2003 elections in Iran February 2003 events in Asia