According to the initial results of the presidential election, Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner judiciary chief, became the 8th president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. His rivals, Abdolnaser Hemmati, former head of Central Bank, Mohsen Rezaei, former IRGC commander, and Ghazizadeh Hashemi, former deputy parliament speaker, congratulated Raisi for his election victory.
According to the media, Hemmati delivered his congratulations to Raisi through a letter written, “I hope your administration, under the leadership of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will make the Islamic Republic proud, improve livelihood and ensure the nation’s well-being and welfare.
Besides, Ghazizadeh Hashemi congratulated Raisi, saying “While supporting the votes of people, I congratulate Hazrat Ayatollah Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi as the people’s elected president.”
The outgoing President Hassan Rouhani also congratulated “the people’s elected president” in a televised speech, without naming Raisi.
In Iran, voting kicked off at 7 a.m. on local time on Friday. It was extended until 2 a.m. on Saturday morning. A large part of conservative voters cast their ballots until Friday noon. Then, voting was slowed down. This situation is thought to be arising from boycott callings by pro-reformists who were angered due to the disqualification of several key nominees from the election by the Guardian Council.
Opinion surveys indicated that the turnout in the elections could be as low as 41%. However, some reports indicated that around 50 percent of 59 million eligible voters cast their ballots.
Speaking at a televised news conference, the head of Iran’s Election Office, Jamal Orf, stated that 28.6 million votes had been counted until 11 a.m. local time, and Raisi won 17.8 million votes.
