Tehran’s mayor, Muhammad-Baqer Qalibaf, waves to media with an ink-stained finger after registering his candidacy for the Iranian presidential election in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday May 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)
The Sunday report says Muhammad-Baqer Qalibaf won the votes of 16 of the 31 members of the Tehran municipal council. He defeated Mohsen Hashemi, son of the influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Qalibaf is considered a conservative and Hashemi a centrist. But Qalibaf has also gained wide support in his eight years in office for his work easing the sprawling capital’s array of urban problems, such as traffic and air pollution.
Qalibaf came a distant second to the centrist- and reformist-backed Hasan Rouhani in the June presidential election. Qalibaf took 16 percent, while Rouhani won with nearly 51 percent. Six candidates were in the race.
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