Al-Tamimi was chosen to be mayor of Baghdad on April 18, 2004, by Baghdad City Council members, with the approval of the U.S. and coalition forces. With a total of forty nine participants with voting authority being City Council members and District Council members, the City Council Selection Committee initially received 93 applications for the position of mayor in response to a highly publicized advertisement campaign in local Baghdad newspapers and other media outlets. From that group of applicants, twenty-eight were deemed to have fully satisfied the advertised criteria. Ultimately, the selection committee whittled down the number of applicants to eight, and submitted their names to the full council for consideration. The exceptionally well-qualified finalists included six PhDs, and seven with engineering backgrounds .. On May 29, 2004, he took office.