The council has decision making authority on most municipal matters with the exception of transport policy, which is handled by the Transport Coordination Center (Turkish: UKOME, Ulaşım Koordinasyon Müdürlüğü).

[2][3][4] There are no separate elections held for the Metropolitan Municipal Council, the body comprises elected councillors from district municipal councils (Turkish: İlçe Belediye Meclisleri) of Istanbul.

District mayors are considered "natural members" of the metropolitan municipal council, and thus are not counted in the one-fifth calculation.

The elected metropolitan mayor serves as the President of the council until their term ends, and can exercise their veto power to send decisions back to deliberation.

Members of each commission are selected for a one-year term, through voting at the Municipal Council of Istanbul.