Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town
wins the 2008 World Mayor Award

Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town, has been chosen as World Mayor 2008. Commentators supporting her nomination said that in a country devoid of present-day role models, this amazing lady was making a difference and giving people there hope: “Her only equals are Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela in Southern Africa.” Runner-up is Elmar Ledergerber, Mayor of Zurich, who will receive the World Mayor Commendation. The mayor deserves this honour because of his ability to build bridges between the wealthy sections of society in the city and the less well-off.

World Mayor: The year’s most outstanding mayors

MK is not even in the short list here.

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Re: Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town

^ Why didn't you post this in Mustafa Kamal thread in Pakistan Affairs? :)

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Helen Zille is also the leader of the opposition in South Africa, i.e. The Democratic Alliance.

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Re: Helen Zille, Mayor of Cape Town

Good for Helen. I just have question on the methodology. Who were the voters and how they were selected to be voters is not clear from the article.

Methodology

The 2008 World Mayor Project was conducted over an 18-month period, starting in spring 2007. During 2007, City Mayors, the organisers of the project, invited a worldwide audience to submit nominations of mayors deemed worthy of being among the most outstanding city leaders in the world. More than 74,000 voters nominated a total of 820 mayors for this year’s World Mayor Award. Some mayors received thousands of nominations while others collected only a handful. The organisers of World Mayor 2008 only considered those nominations which were accompanied by supporting testimonials

Based on the number of nominations and the persuasiveness of supporting statements, City Mayors drew up a long-list of 50 finalists. The list included 11 mayors from Asia, 10 from North America and 11 from Latin America as well as 15 mayors from Europe and 3 from Africa.

Some of the 2008 finalists for the World Mayor title were from the world’s best-known and largest cities, while others represented smaller communities. Most of this year’s finalists were being short-listed for the first time. Under the World Mayor rules, winners and runner-ups from previous years were not eligible. They include John So, Lord Mayor of Melbourne (Australia), Job Cohen, Mayor of Amsterdam (Netherlands), Hazel McCallion, Mayor of Mississauga (Canada) and Edi Rama, Mayor of Tirana (Albania

During the second round of World Mayor 2008, from January to July, voters were invited to select from the long-list of 50 their choice of title candidate. While in previous years, simple click voting was permitted, although not encouraged, in 2008 this voting method was not allowed. In order to have their votes registered, participants had to provide a reasoned comment. Some 205,000 people from around the world participated in the second round of World Mayor 2008

In July 2008, City Mayors’ editors drew up a short-list of eleven mayors, who stood out in terms of number of votes and quality of comment from their supporters. Between July and the end of September, the organisers of the World Mayor Project, consulted and took advise on who of the eleven mayors from the final shortlist should receive the 2008 World Mayor Award. Among the editors of City Mayors, Helen Zille was the unanimous choice.

(Pakistan has its own good, capable mayors including Mustafa Kamal)