Iran begins voting in presidential election

Addis Ababa, June 28, 2024 (FBC) – Iranians have headed to the polls in a snap election following the unexpected passing of former President Ebrahim Raiesi in a helicopter crash.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) on Friday. They close at 6:00 p.m., subject to extension by the interior ministry if necessary, according to reports by local media.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei cast his ballot at a polling station in Tehran just as the voting began.

“We recommend our dear people to take voting and participation in this important political test seriously and participate in it,” he said after voting.

“In order to prove the health and sincerity of the Islamic Republic’s system, the presence of the people is necessary and obligatory,” Khamenei said.

More than 61 million people are eligible to vote, Press TV reported, citing the head of the election headquarters.

While there was no clear frontrunner leading up to the vote, two candidates withdrew, leaving four others in the race.

Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi dropped his candidacy and urged other candidates to do the same “so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened”. On Thursday, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani also withdrew, as he did previously in the 2021 election in which Raeisi was voted into office.

Reports indicate that former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf remain in the race, so do Massoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon by profession and a member of parliament from the northwestern city of Tabriz, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former interior minister.

If there is no clear majority after Friday’s vote, the top two candidates face a second round of voting on July 5. The winner will serve for four years.