Iran’s presidential election on Friday opened to a test of the cleric’s ruling cleric’s popularity amid regional tensions and the electorate’s palace amid tensions between the West and Tehran over Tehran’s nuclear program.
State television said polling stations opened their doors to voters at 8 a.m. local time (0430 GMT). Voting closes at 6pm (1430 GMT) but usually lasts until midnight. The final results will be declared on Saturday, but the preliminary numbers may come out earlier.
In the June 28 vote, more than 60 percent of voters rejected the snap election for Ebrahim Raisi’s successor after he died in a helicopter crash. The lack of participation is seen by critics as a lack of confidence in the Islamic Republic.
The vote was a tight race between four candidates for incumbent MP Masoud Pezeshkian and former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
Although the election will have little impact on the politics of the Islamic Republic, the president will be closely involved in choosing a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 85-year-old supreme leader of Iran, who has focused on all major issues.
“I heard that the people’s interest and interest is higher than in the first round. May God make it happen, because it will be good news,” Khamenei told state television after the vote.
Khamenei admitted on Wednesday that the previous vote was “lower than expected”, but said it was “wrong to consider our first round turnout as against Islamic rules”.
Voter turnout has fallen in the past four years, critics say, reflecting waning support for the system amid public discontent over economic hardship and restrictions on political and social freedoms.
Only 48 percent of voters participated in the 2021 election that would bring Raisi to power, compared to 41 percent in March’s parliamentary elections.
The election coincided with increased regional tensions over the conflict between Israel and Iran’s allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as increased Western pressure on Iran through its rapidly expanding nuclear program.
“Voting is empowering … even if there is criticism, people should vote because every vote is like firing a missile (against the enemy),” Amirali Hajizadeh, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Air Force, told state media.
The incoming president is not expected to make major changes to Iran’s nuclear program or reverse its support for militia groups in the Middle East, but he runs the government on a day-to-day basis and could influence Iran’s foreign and domestic policies.
