World Mayor 2012:
The final long-list

8 January 2013: During the first round of the 2012 World Mayor Project, which closed on 17 May 2012, more than 205,000 people suggested some 910 mayors for this year's World Mayor Prize. On 24 May, The City Mayors Foundation published the final long-list of candidates for the 2012 World Mayor Prize. Among the 98 official candidates were 17 mayors from North America, 14 mayors from Latin America, 34 mayors from Europe, 21 mayors from Asia, five mayors from Australasia and seven mayors from Africa.

The US contributed the greatest number of mayors from a single country to the 2012 long-list. It included some well-known mayors such as Boston’s Thomas Menino but also lesser-known city leaders like John DeStefano from New Haven.

Canada has a long tradition of producing formidable and visionary mayors. In previous years, the World Mayor Project honoured Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion (Runner-up in 2005), Calgary Mayor David Bronconnier (Finalist in 2006), Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz (Finalist in 2008) and Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts (Ranked fourth in 2010). This year’s longlist included for the first time the mayors of London, Kitchener and Quebec City.

Latin American mayoral contenders for this year’s World Mayor Prize represented the cities of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Mendoza (Argentina), Birigui (Brazil), Curitiba (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Puerto Montt (Chile), Bogota (Colombia), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Guatemala City, Aquascalientes (Mexico) and Caracas (Venezuela).

The European contingent of candidates for the 2012 World Mayor Prize included the capital mayors from Vienna, Helsinki, Luxembourg City, Amsterdam, Oslo, Moscow, Stockholm and London. But among the European contenders were also many mayors from smaller provincial cities such as Angers in France, Hannover in Germany, Verona in Italy, Porto in Portugal. Lugano in Switzerland and Watford in the UK.

Asian mayors were well represented in the 2012 longlist. Candidates include the Filipino mayors of Angeles City, Davao City and Manila, the mayors of Sulawesi Selatan (Indonesia), Surakarta (Indonesia), Tehran (Iran), Muscat (Oman), Osaka (Japan), Mumbai (India), Matale (Sri Lanka), Tel Aviv (Israel), Seoul (South Korea) and Ankara (Turkey).

The longlist also contained five mayors from Africa: Bafut (Cameroon), Ekurhuleni, (South Africa), Cape Town (South Africa), Nairobi (Kenya) and Amuwo Odofin (Nigeria). From Australia, the mayors of Melbourne, Perth and Sydney were in contention for this year’s World Mayor Prize as was the mayor of Auckland, New Zealand.

Previous winners of the World Mayor Prize: Edi Rama (Tirana, 2004), Dora Bakoyannis (Athens, 2005), John So (Melbourne, 2006), Helen Zille (Cape Town, 2008), Marcelo Ebrard (Mexico City, 2010)

The shortlist of 25 final nominees, which was announced on 18 June, includes five mayors from North America, four from Latin America, seven from Europe, five from Asia, two from Australasia and two from Africa. Voting took place until 20 October. The winner of the 2012 World Mayor Prize and other results of the World Mayor Project were announced on 8 January 2013.

World Mayor longlist of
candidates for the 2012 Prize
North America
Mayor Joe Fontana, London, Ontario, Canada
Mayor Carl Zehr, Kitchener, Canada
Mayor Régis Labeaume, Québec City, Canada
Mayor Dianne Watts, Surrey, BC, Canada
Mayor Rob Ford, Toronto, Canada
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Baltimore, USA
Mayor Thomas Menino, Boston, USA
Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson, Gary, USA
Mayor David Bing, Detroit, USA
Mayor John F Cook, El Paso, USA
Mayor Gregory Ballard, Indianapolis, USA
Mayor R T Rybak, Minneapolis, USA
Mayor Patrick Henry Hays , North Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles, USA
Mayor Tom Barrett, Milwaukee, USA
Mayor Cory Booker, Newark, USA
Mayor John DeStefano, New Haven, USA
Mayor Ralph Becker, Salt Lake City, USA

Latin America
Mayor Mauricio Macri, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mayor Victor Fayad, Mendoza, Argentina
Mayor Wilson Carlos Rodrigues Borini, Birigui, Brazil
Mayor Luciano Ducci, Curitiba, Brazil
Mayor Eduardo Paes, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Mayor Rabindranath Quinteros Lara, Puerto Montt, Chile
Mayor Gustavo Petro, Bogota, Colombia
Mayor Carlos Eduardo Caicedo Omar, Santa Marta, Colombia
Mayor Jaime José Nebot Saadi, Guayaquil, Ecuador
Mayor Alvaro Arzú, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Mayor Lorena Martínez, Aguascalientes, Mexico
Mayor Alfonso Sánchez Garza, Matamoros, Mexico
Mayor Mauricio Fernández Garza, San Pedro Garza García, Mexico
Mayor Susana Villarán, Lima, Peru
Mayor Antonio Ledezma, Caracas, Venezuela

Europe
Mayor Qazim Sejdini, Elbasan, Albania
Mayor Michael Häupl, Vienna, Austria
Mayor Freddy Thielemans, Brussels, Belgium
Mayor Roman Onderkan, Brno, Czech Republic
Mayor Edgar Savisaar, Tallinn, Estonia
Mayor Jussi Pajunen, Helsinki, Finland
Mayor Jean-Claude Antonini, Angers, France
Mayor Serge Goddard, Clermont Ferrand, France
Mayor Manuel Valls, Evry, France
Mayor Ottilie Scholz, Bochum, Germany
Mayor Stephan Weil, Hanover, Germany
Mayor Christian Ude, Munich, Germany
Mayor Zacharias Doxastakis, Hersonissos, Greece
Mayor Athanassios Kousathanas - Megas, Mykonos, Greece
Mayor Andreas Pachatouridis, Peristeri, Greece
Mayor Éva Tétényi, Esztergom, Hungary
Mayor Matteo Renzi, Mayor of Florence, Italy
Mayor Marta Vincenzi, Genoa, Italy
Mayor Flavio Tosi, Verona, Italy
Mayor Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
Mayor Eberhard van der Laan, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Mayor Fabian Stang, Oslo, Norway
Mayor Jacek Majchrowski, Kraków, Poland
Mayor Rui Fernando da Silva Rio, Porto, Portugal
Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, Moscow, Russia
Mayor Zoran Jankovic, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Mayor Iñaki Azkuna, Bilbao, Spain
Mayor Pere Navarro Morera, Tarrasa, Spain
Mayor Sten Nordin, Stockholm, Sweden
Mayor Giorgio Giudici, Lugano, Switzerland
Mayor Boris Johnson, London, UK
Mayor Robin Wales, Newham, London, UK
Mayor Dorothy Thornhill, Watford, UK

Asia
Mayor Mohammad Younus Nawandish, Kabul, Afghanistan
Mayor Han Zheng, Shanghai, China
Mayor Lin Zuluan, Wukan, China
Mayor Shraddha Shridhar Jadhav, Mumbai, India
Mayor Kiranmayi Nayak, Raipur, India
Mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin, Makassar, Indonesia
Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia
Mayor Tri Rismaharini (Risma), Surabaya, Indonesia
Mayor Joko Widodo, Surakarta, Indonesia
Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran, Iran
Mayor Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv, Israel
Mayor Toru Hashimoto, Osaka, Japan
Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, Angeles City, Philippines
Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, Davao City, Philippines
Mayor Alfredo S Lim, Manila, Philippines
Sultan bin Hamdoon Al Harthy, Muscat, Oman
Mayor Park Wan-su, Changwon City, South Korea
Mayor Song Young-gil, Incheon, South Korea
Mayor Park Won-soon, Seoul, South Korea
Mayor Hilmy Careem, Matale, Sri Lanka
Mayor Melih Gökçek, Ankara, Turkey

Australasia
Mayor Troy Pickard, Joondalup, Australia
Mayor Robert Doyle, Melbourne, Australia
Mayor Lisa Scaffidi, Perth, Australia
Mayor Clover Moore, Sydney, Australia
Mayor Len Brown, Mayor of Auckland, New Zealand

Africa
Mayor Mouhib Khatir, Zeralda, Algeria
Mayor Langsi Abel Ngwasoh, Bafut, Cameroon
Mayor George Aladwa, Nairobi, Kenya
Mayor Ayodele Adebowale Adewale, Amuwo Odofin LG, Lagos, Nigeria
Mayor Khalifa Ababacar Sall, Dakar, Senegal
Mayor Patricia de Lille, Cape Town, South Africa
Mayor Mondli Gungubele, Ekurhuleni, South Africa

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