Tehran, April 29, IRNA -- The Tehran City Council (TCC) has appointed Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad as the mayor of the 12-million-strong megapolis, press said Tuesday.

The Persian daily Iran cited informed sources as saying that Mehdi Chamran had also been designated as the head of the TCC. The appointments, it said, will officially be announced soon.

Ahmadi-Nejad already served as the governor of the northwestern Ardebil province. He teaches at the Science and Industry (Elm-o San'at) University of Tehran.

The Tehran City Council has been dogged by a series of internal conflicts as well as disputes with the municipality, leading to its dissolution in January by Interior Minister Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari and replacement of the city's mayor.

The dissolution came ahead of council elections which tipped the balance in the rival camp's favor.

A progressive Tehran mayor, Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi, was stripped of his post after being indicted on graft charges, which landed him in jail.

His release came with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's pardon after reportedly former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani intervened.

Municipal elections, envisaged in the 1979 Islamic Constitution, were first held in 1999 on the back of President Khatami's campaign to promote democracy and build a civil society in Iran.

... Payvand News - 4/29/03 ... --